Monday, January 6, 2014

Divine permission to chill out

I'm starting 2014 today because this weekend was bonkers...so...Happy New Year!

I made resolutions this year. I weeded through a bunch of scriptures from Doctrine and Covenants 88:118-126 and chose one thing to focus on per month. For example, this month's resolution is to "seek learning by study and by faith" and next month is to "organize myself." 

I have a plan for making this happen. I've made a nice long list of them, organized them by month and broken them down into weekly goals. It's all written in detail on my "Tropical Beaches" calendar which hangs in my closet. It was feeling ambitious to the point of delusional, I think. Doesn't it sound exhausting?

One thing that I have figured out is that it is a good idea to pray for guidance as I set goals and to pray when I am done setting goals to make sure that I am not getting way off track. You know, the ol' heavenly stamp of approval?

My resolution-making happened to fall on fast Sunday eve, so I decided to make it a matter of fasting as well (this may seem dramatic, but that is only because you don't know how serious I am about getting my life on track). 

Fast forward to our Relief Society meeting yesterday. My Relief Society president played this video during her lesson, which she prefaced by saying that she hates making resolutions and did not want to give a lesson on making resolutions. Thankfully, she followed the prompting to do so anyway. Here it is:


To me, this video felt like a great, big heavenly "Chill out, Elise." Nothing like a divine voice telling you to calm down, huh?

And it is okay to slow down (as evident by the slow-mo cinematography).

I didn't throw away my resolutions calendar. I will still shoot toward my goals, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I'm going to jump on the trampoline with my kids and abandon my schedule sometimes.

It is good to make lofty goals, but it is better to focus on the small things that matter most.