There’s a lot of pressure for the first post after the first post. Perfectionism enters the stage as I attempt to shoo it off the other side. I mean, I’ve done my initial ‘hey everybody I’m blogging now’ post and written out an ‘about me’ section that both elicited minor hyperventilation before hitting ‘publish’, but neither of those caused me to sit and think to the extent I’ve thought about this one. What should the next post be to really kick it off…to set the tone, to launch the trajectory the way I want it to go.

Like the sequel to a movie, I feel like this post will either make people walk out laughing at me and feeling as though they’ve wasted 2 hours (just keep reading, its not THAT long) of their life, OR I’m going to gain a cult following with my own line of apparel and koozies to follow…its one or the other right?

I was going to share my testimony right off the bat. I’ll be referencing the fact that I’m a believer all throughout my blog, so that felt like the right idea. Then I sat down and wrote it out for the first time in my whole life. That has a lot more weight to it than I anticipated. I think I’m just going to need some time to refine a good summary so its not actually a two hour read AND wait till I’m fully ready to post all those details to the public. Not that I wouldn’t share the whole thing with you if you asked me personally.

So instead, I’m going to spin off of that idea in a way and address the herd of elephants on our newsfeed. “The 10 year challenge.” I saw someone write ‘if you want to see my first profile picture on Facebook, you’re welcome to scroll back to it.’ Good one! That same dude makes me laugh on the regular with his short, witty, and very sarcastic statuses. (Brian-if you’re reading, that’s you.) I am also fluent in sarcasm as you’ll soon learn to love. Or you’ll leave with the ‘waste of my time’ camp…ouch.

I almost did it too, and I’ll probably include mine at the bottom of this page just for the heck of it, but seeing everyone else’s has caused me think a few different things…

1. All the celebrities pick photos where they look exactly the same. *googles hollywood skincare routine, closes browser, its obviously too expensive*
2. Those of us not posting photos feel like they look like the meme comparing Belle from Beauty and the Beast to the poor mother of 5 (that we know of) in the street begging for eggs. *slowly raises hand*
3. I’m loving the ones that include the list of differences, especially the ones that address their internal changes over the decade.
4. It gives those that have been on a transformation journey an opportunity to share a shocking then and now photo without looking too pretentious because everyone is doing it anyway. (I love transformation photos, please note I already said I’m fluent in sarcasm. Don’t throw away your koozie yet).
5. Most importantly, it’s provided a slew of great memes.

So what makes us so curious, and some of us even eager to take a gander at our past and present selves and slap ’em up in a side by side, whether we post them on social media or not? (You know its in your camera roll at the very least.) And what are we really examining or hoping for by doing so?

You’ve been hearing from self help authors, motivational speakers, and pastors over the past couple of weeks sharing a less than profound truth, but one that I need hammered in my brain…mmm…probably daily.

‘Anything worth having takes time.’

Are you the same as me? When you feel like you’ve worked hard at something for a significant amount of time (or not) and throw your hands up in disgust and frustration with yourself for your lack of success according to your ideal timing?

A solid bet is that you’re going to notice some sort of difference in yourself in the comparison of a decade. Internally, externally, or both. Negative or positive, or again, both. This past Sunday, our pastor addressed the issue of our impatient and obsessive nature with progress and priorities. I will post the link of the sermon once its available. I’m positive I’m going to butcher this, and if for some reason he reads this, I may cause him to question his decision to go into ministry.

Aside from the passage he was preaching from (Prov. 24:30-34 in case you’re curious), he read a couple of excerpts from this book that is now on my 2019 list to read:

*click the image for link*

The author broke it down into percentages. If you change one thing by 1% a day, by the end of that year you’ll have made a 30-something% improvement. It can go the other way too. Massive success doesn’t usually come from massive changes. It’s finding a way to make the 1% our new habit every day. Again, the most valuable things take time and consistency.

Pete called us out on the fact that we are great at surviving the circumstances we create for ourselves by the bad habits we get all too comfortable with. He used the analogy of an old lawn mower with a broken back wheel that he had continuously neglected to fix. For 2 summers he had to lift the lawn mower at every pass to turn it because he couldn’t tilt it back to rotate it on its wheels like one normally does. Some of us are living life very difficultly because we just never make it a priority to quickly stop in Home Depot and grab a replacement wheel. Its just the one small change that makes a difference when you show up and use it every time.

He encouraged us to get curious about those bad habits…to think about all the details of them and how they negatively affect our lives. We do this so that we can then become disenchanted with them. Throw away the attitude titled “if i can’t get out of it by tomorrow I’ll just deal with sitting in it”.  Instead, you have to fall in love with the process of tiny changes.

Time can either work for you, or against you here. You can totally sabotage yourself in this way. We’re also masters of making even a good thing too important. Keep your perspective and your priorities in line and the rest will fall into place.

So what are you focusing on for the next 10 years? I’m not talking about how to color the gray hairs or slow the wrinkles. I mean what habits will you evaluate? Baby steps people, baby steps. I certainly hope some of my goals don’t take the next decade to meet, but I’m interested to see what the next one holds when I have the opportunity to reflect on it. This year is a milestone decade for me in that I graduated high school 10 years ago and shortly after, met my husband. (Our story is coming in a later post!) I feel excited when I think of the areas I have grown, and challenged when I think of the ones I’m going to focus more and more on as my season of life allows.

Something I do to track my progress, as well as many other things in my spiritual life, is journal. Every year I buy one. It has to be a hard back spiral, usually found at Target, but here’s one that’s the same kind of style. It doesn’t matter how many pages are left in the last one, January 1st gets a new one. Some of those journals are full. Others are a puny waste of paper because I made it less of a point to visit it multiple times a week. Inside I write my sermon notes, praises, prayer requests, random brain dump lists, dreams, frustrations, and sometimes just one paragraph about something that happened that day that I want to remember or see growth from when I look back. Its one of the best things I’ve done for myself because its so easy to forget how far you’ve come, especially in the years where you’re just surviving.

Last thing. If you are in a season of ‘just surviving’, you pull out your most glittery gel pen and you write down the days you get out of bed, shower, and drink more water than yesterday…because I know what that’s like all too well. That’s just as much progress for you as it is for the person who just crossed the finish line after they’ve been working up to running an actual marathon their whole life. I’m proud of both of those people. You’re not ahead or behind. If you don’t lose the baby weight this year, who cares? If you don’t make your bed 365 days in a row, WHO CARES!?

I’ll tell you what God cares about. You. He wants to hear from you in the depths just as much as he wants to hear from you in the most productive days, I promise.

Keep praying, keep talking or writing…and keep giving those sequels (and my future posts) a chance. Sometimes you’ll find a winner.

 

End Scene.
-Linds.
Oh yeah, here’s my side-by-side…it feels more weird posting it here than on Facebook and only a fraction of those people will even see it.

2009-Senior Year                                            End of 2018 (and most similar angle of myself I could find.)

 

 

 

 

 

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