a slightly different New Years resolution (subtitle: questions)

well, technically it's slightly late for a New Year's Resolution, so maybe I'll go a little deeper than that, since it's a little later than that, with yet another insanely long blog post. (tho'... I wanna see in writing the precept that says blog posts are short...) =) With the college program I'm doing, one of the things they highly recommend doing (and I would also HIGHLY recommend this to all my readers) is a short life purpose planning course. Now, coming from the family I come from, I already had this sort of mindset trained into me, but with going through some practical exercises of this mindset, a deeper look into who I really am, and the grace and guidance of my Lord preparing me both before, during, and after this course, I've come out of said course looking at things a little differently. I don't have time to go into all the details, unfortunately (I've got two huge goals for this year: finish my gen. ed. credits, aka, first 2 years of college, AND publishing my novel, so I'm quite busy and lovin' it =), but there is one thing I've begun to do that I wanted to share with you. It's very simple and helpful. When you sit down to plan ANYTHING (especially your 2010) ask yourself this (I like spreadsheets, so I make a column for this or add it in italics under anything I plan in a document) :

To What Purpose?

(In simpler terms... why the heck am I doing this? *wink*)

If you think about the answer for even a few minutes, you may find yourself reevaluating your activities a little bit. Or at least thinking more deeply about them, which is always a good idea. Life is waaay too short, my friends. I'm suggesting that, if we want to really 'go places' (and hopefully it is your goal as well as mine to surrender your idea of 'going places' to the SAVIOR's idea of 'going places') we MUST consider carefully the things we choose to fill our precious time with. What do we really want to be about (and this will be different for everyone)? What does that practically look like? And how will we get there? These are three key questions, especially for young people who will shortly be making important decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. I recommend you ask them to yourself and God. But on the smaller scale, let us carefully evaluate our every step along the path of life. Why do we do what we do? What's the point?

And perhaps most importantly: Where are we going? And why?

Always been one for questions myself. *grin* Hopefully these will intrigue and not scare you. *wink* With the Lord as my teacher and guide, I found the search for these answers to be a very enlightening and edifying one. (and yeah, definitely check out that link. it's only one reasonably short book that you can go through on your own time, but it's incredibly insightful and helpful)

Here's hoping yours will be as well, matey-o. ;)

mE