Saturday, January 4, 2014

Guiding Words for 2014

{For my Skywatch Post, see here}

Hi friends, I trust you are all settling in to a New Year.

I love the changing of years where we say "goodbye" to one year and "hello" to another.  In recent years I've used it as a opportunity for reflection and planning.  A time to reflect on the year gone by to see what things went well and what things didn't go so well. A time to discover whether there are things that I have the ability to change or whether I need to "let go and let God". It is also a time to think about the coming year and plan and look forward to limitless possibilities.


If you have followed me for a few years you might remember reading my review of goals set for the year.  At the same time I consider whether I had to change my goals in mid-year, accomplished them or had to carry them forward for one reason or another.  I usually also plan and post my goals for the coming year in late December/early January.  This year however I felt the need to do something a bit different.



Instead of posting my goals publically I will be keeping them private. It isn't because they are so secret.  Rather I've just not been as passionate about blogging this past few months.  I still want to blog and connect with my readers.  At the same time, I want my readers to connect with me.  However, I'm trying to find a balance between the two objectives.  So I've started to blog less and visit blogs less often as well. {For now I won't be giving up blogging.}


It is all part of my desire to "simplify" and "streamline".

These two words will be my mantras for 2014. They will guide the goals I set for myself also.

I am a bit behind schedule in terms of what I've usually accomplished in the early days of the year.

But in keeping with my two words, "simplify" and "streamline" I've already spent a bit of time over the past several days doing just that.

Some of the things I've managed to accomplish in the early days of January:
  • simplify - made New Year's dinner with less variety of foods to enjoy and didn't invite anyone over for dinner. {While I did have guests over Christmas having a few days to myself to recover from sickness was less stressful because I didn't have to entertain}.
  • streamline ~ took down the Christmas decorations several days early. {I usually keep them up until January 2 but this year they came down on December 27th. I think this will be my new norm so I can start the year clutter free.}
  • streamline ~  Deleted duplicate and triplicate entries for individuals in my email address book.  {Some people accumulate excessive emails in a short space of time when they switch internet providers.   It's one good reason to simplify by using a free email account.}  
  • streamline ~  Got rid of old files and photos from my desktop.  {I should have done this sooner in preparation for installing Windows 8.  I have more streamlining to do from my hardrive folders & photo files.}

I hope that through more simplifying and streamlining there will be progress on the continual process of decluttering which is so necessary to living in a smaller space.  I also hope there there will be much more "me" time.  This "me" time is for reflecting on the deeper things of life and spending time on the things that are most important to me.  There will also be "me" time to take better care of my health.

I look forward to the year ahead and to connecting with you all.  I pray you all have a bountiful and blessed 2014!

6 comments:

Lynda said...

Simplify and streamline are great words to incorporate in our lifestyle. I like them! We have been working on de-cluttering for what seems like forever but it feels good! Also, in our personal lives, we have cut back on many activities and are just enjoying family time with our kids and grandchild. I took about a two month break from blogging because there were other things that seemed to take priority over it. However, I do love blogging when I have time and enjoy the interaction with my blog buddies. It's good to hear from you!

Stephanie V said...

Isn't it funny that so many of us took a break at the same time? Blogging does take up a fair bit of time. I like your new mantra. Happy New Year!

Jo said...

Penny, simplify and streamline is a wonderful way to go! On Tuesday evening I thought about whether I accomplished what I set out to do in 2013, (write my book) and had to admit, that though I have lots of material and have started to put things together on Word, I didn't succeed in actually WRITING it yet. Then I wondered why and realized that even though I stopped managing the Guest House in August last year, the last quarter of my year was taken up by CATS! Apart from kitty-sitting my friends cats for more than three months (a challenge with my territorial trio of males in the house), and also spending most of November and the first week of December relocating them to SA to their owner, I also assisted the vet in operating on six cats and a dog in that time. This was also all over the space of August through mid - October! Thanks for being such a precious friend. Please don't stop blogging altogether; I love reading about your life. Blessings and hugs Jo PS I've not had e-mail reception for a few days but see there's a mail from you: I will reply shortly! xxx

Anonymous said...

Great words. I am striving to simplify also. Good luck for 2014, friend!

Jan said...

Good luck with your simplifying. That is sometime I need to make time to do this week too. Hope 2014 is a good year for you Penny. xx

Cynthia said...

I'm thinking about my words for the year also but haven't hit on just the right one(s) yet. I like yours and used Simplify about five years ago. My words for last year were my best ones yet: Expect Good. Maybe I should just keep them for another year!

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