Fresh beginnings

And so, another year has passed. Time again to ponder on your 2009 list of personal accomplishments — or its non-existence. Either way, it is your big chance to make your own “year-end review.”

The start of the new year is the perfect time to sit down, reflect, and set some goals for the coming year. It affords you to have some meaningful time to carefully listen to your heart and know what you’re really called to do.

What do you want to accomplish in 2010 and beyond? Where does your heart passion lie? What special projects do you intend to pursue? How do you intend to bless the people and communities around you in a practical and meaningful way? Write it all down and be serious with the whole goal-setting ritual.

Time is money. Actually, it is more valuable than money (and successful business people know this full well). Lost money can be retrieved or replenished anytime. But lost money is unretrievable. What you do with the time given to you by God is irreversible; one simply cannot go back in time to undo things that have already been done. So be a good steward of time, and do not take it for granted. Wasting time is such a travesty!

If you think 2010 is the time for you to pursue a dream, say, putting up a small food business or studying photography or web design, then do so. Follow your heart and invest your precious, precious time on something that you know is right for you and the people in your area of influence. In the end, you will be happy you have made this crucial decision.

Remember, there will always be ‘dream detractors’ in your life. The world is full of them. But do not easily lose heart when you hear a barrage of criticisms that weigh you down. Focus. Do not swerve to the right nor to the left; do not allow yourself to be sidetracked. Instead, march on straight ahead and disregard needless distractions. Reaching your personal goals is of prime importance. You live your life only once. So stop letting others live it for you.

Maybe you have been derailed in the past and find yourself in a rut right now. But do not get discouraged. It is not yet too late for you to put yourself back on track. Finish that college degree. Apply for that dream job. Set up that business. Join that church or community initiative in helping the poor and needy in your area. The options are endless. So what are you waiting for?

Remember, how you live your life is a personal choice. So why not live it to the fullest? You basically do not regret the things that you do, but the things that you do not do. Better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all (okay, that’s a spin-off of a famous line). So make that first step NOW. Attempt is actually a good word.

Here’s to 2010. Have a wonderful new year filled with well-intentioned action plans!

TIDBITS: Fish & Loaves, a Christian devotional blog, featured a piece called “Setting Goals for the New Year” here.

Laugh your way through life's challenges

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

In his book Laugh Again: Experience Outrageous Joy, author Charles R. Swindoll’s writes the following passage:

Experts tell us that laughter not only makes our serious lives lighter, but laughter also helps control pain in at least four ways: (1) by distracting our attention, (2) by reducing the tension we are living with, (3) by changing our expectations, and (4) by increasing the production of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. Laughter, strange as it may seem, turns our minds from our seriousness and pain and actually creates a degree of anesthesia. By diverting our attention from our situation, laughter enables us to take a brief excursion away from the pain.

Sometimes it is not literal pain but a too-serious mind-set. When our world begins to get too serious, we need momentary interruptions of just plain fun. A surprising day off, a long walk in the woods, a movie, an enjoyable evening relaxing with a friend over a bowl of popcorn, a game of racquetball or golf — these diversions can make all the difference in our ability to cope with life’s crushing demands. We need to give ourselves permission to enjoy various moments in life even though all of life is not in perfect order. This takes practice, but it’s worth the effort. It helps break guilt’s strangehold on us.

Well, the text is pretty much self-explanatory. In other words, the blogger is currently unavailable to write a full-length blog post. This entry is being published on autopilot mode once again.

Freitag will resume its regular programming next Friday, Feb. 27.

TIDBITS: If you’re a major fan of Gary Larson’s The Far Side, you can — or should we say, you should — buy a copy of The Complete Far Side 1980-1994. The deluxe two-volume set contains all the Far Side cartoons ever syndicated, numbering to over 4,000, presented in chronological order (”more or less,” to quote the publishers) by year of publication. On top of this, the set features more than 1,000 cartoons that have never before appeared in a book.