Hello 2017!!!! It feels soooo good to finally be here. 2016 was such a life changing year for me, and I have a lot in store for this New Year. I took the last week off to get settled into a new groove of doing things and I want to share that with you. As we got closer to the end of 2016, I posted more on the areas I want to grow in my life. They included getting out of debt, building more content for the blog, and getting better with my hand lettering. For the first post of the year, it was only appropriate to share my New Years resolutions as we start a new year.
365 Days of Hand Lettering
As I mentioned many times last year, 2017 would be the start of 365 days of hand lettering. This is honestly the most challenging goal I have ever put myself through. After accomplishing 100 days of Hand Lettering, I found a renewed love for typography. Within those short 100 days, my technique significantly improved. I finally gave in to my gut feeling and accepted the fact that if I’m going to be successful in anything, I will do so using my own two hands and building a business for myself. It’s time to stop fighting my inner inhibitions and put in the work and time into something that truly brings me joy. 10 days in so far and I’m feeling really good. I’ve had some difficult days but I have to keep focused on honoring the practice and showing up for myself each day.
One Year Bible Reading Plan
In my getting to know me post, I talked briefly about my faith and being raised in a Christian household. When I moved out of the house for college, I got the ability to understand my relationship with God and my build my faith without the push from family to go to church every Sunday. As the years passed, I’ve gained a deeper connection with God and awareness of my faith. The church I attend here in Knoxville gave out a new book for the New Year titled Called Out. The book is written to guide us through our faith so God gives us a new name, prophesying over your life. It included a One Year Bible reading plan as well as a Personal Growth Plan. It felt right to use my faith and strength from the Lord as guidance alongside with my hand lettering challenge. I’ve never read the bible in its entirety so this reading plan was perfect to help me do so!
Personal Growth
Finance – In my personal life, there are some areas which I would like to improve on. For example, one of my biggest hurdles is my debt. Though I’m not drowning in a pool of it, my student loans and car payment is set back I wish no longer existed. Last year I was successful in paying off my credit card debt which opened up extra funds to put towards my car this year. I’ve dramatically cut down on my spending and set up bi-weekly budgets for food, gas, bills and savings. I believe it’s important to gain meaningful experiences with friends and family by doing things together that does not necessarily involve spending money or a lot of money. With that in mind, it puts less pressure to feel obligated to spend money doing or buying things that add no real value to my life.
Food – Another area which I would like to improve is my relationship with food. I don’t have bad eating habits and eat relatively well for the most part. I want to expand my knowledge on healthy food options and gain a better understanding of where my food comes from. I feel that in our society we have a nonchalant way of thinking of our food. We show no honor or appreciation for it which has lead to the abuse of our food system. Jon and I have been experimenting with growing our own food using different techniques and learning to be sustainable human beings. This year we intend to start a small food garden filled with herbs and vegetables were prone to buy often but easy to grow. I will share updates on this as the year proceeds.
