2019 Will be the Year of:

I have many resolutions – or plans, or goals, or whatever you’d like to call them – for 2019.

I haven’t been the type of person who makes New Year’s resolutions and the like in the past simply because my years would end when school or university ended and I’d be knee deep in holiday mode when January 1st came around.

This year’s been the first time when I’ve been working right up until the end of the year and haven’t had time to do the introspection and planning that I usually do. That delay’s been a little unnerving to me but it also makes me happy to know that I ended 2018 working hard doing things that I enjoy (while getting some relaxation scheduled in as well).

In the past, I would make resolutions or plans centred around changing some part of myself that I deemed lacking. I would promise myself that this year I’d finally stop eating junk, work out three times a week, get those straight As. Those are all great goals – but they’re the kind that I’d never given a thought to up until I was examining my life for its flaws.

This year, I want to do something different. There are things that I’ve been planning for a while and simply haven’t gotten down to that I believe should end up on this list and others that I have already begun the beginnings of putting into place which I simply want to devote more time to. And if, in the midst of all of this, I end up also accomplishing those straight As and gym visits – great. But I’m not going to sweat it if I don’t.

The new year brings with it a rush of endorphins and an increased willingness to be productive, sometimes only because our feeds and lives are filled with the evidence of other people lacing their shoes and getting down to laying some truly excellent frameworks to help them in achieving their goals and I would much rather direct that push towards goals that I’ve been carrying for months rather than the cliched ones that pop into my head when we hit round about the 27th of December.

So, without further ado, my top three goals for 2019 are:

Don’t you just love that alliteration?

Let’s go further into it from the bottom up.

Podcasting

I’ve been saying for months now that I want to start a podcast and my main stumbling block has been that I couldn’t decide which topic to focus on. I’d love to start a book reviewing podcast but then there are also other things that I’d like to focus on. Things like my personal struggles and journey; everything and anything that frustrates me about the community I’m in and why I think that is; and tons of other stuff that could make up a dozens posts all on their own.

This year, I am determined to start writing those scripts. I might decide to start two separate podcasts or I might combine them but there’s no use not doing the writing because I can’t yet figure out where everything will fit.

That kind of hesitation is something I’m quite familiar with and it may be something that’s resulted in you holding back on things as well. There’s this trap of worrying that not all the details have been ironed out yet so it’s impossible to move forward. Don’t let yourself get caught in that kind of paralysis. I love to plan things out but I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that no matter how much you plan and rework things, in the end you’ve just got to hit the start button.

Planning

I love to plan things. I love to make to do lists and sketch things out in my head. But, that’s where it ends. This year, I’d like to get better at getting those plans to translate into something tangible and part of doing that is planning better. I’d like to examine the way I plan for what is and isn’t working for me and perhaps develop some new strategies. This one’s particularly scary for me because I don’t particularly like to change my processes. However, to grow we need to keep evaluating and, if things can be improved, let go of the old to usher in the new.

There’s something that I’ve been doing which I term “fruitless planning” which is the kind of disjointed plan with no real steps to putting that plan into action. It’s the kind of plan that says – I’m going to do the thing. SOMEHOW. But… I dunno how and I’m not really concentrating on that.

I’d very much like to refine my planning process to cut down on that kind of fruitless planning if at all possible, just because it’s a bit of a waste of time. Now, all plans do begin with I’m going to do the thing somehow for me. That’s well and good and normal. The problem comes in when that’s all that gets done. The plan never goes further and just sits on a mental shelf gathering dust until I eventually regretfully let go of it to make space for something new.

In 2019, I’d like to get to a point where I have some kind of idea for how to achieve the things that I’m planning – all of them – even if I can’t or won’t immediately put those plans into place. I think that not only will it make me more productive, it will also take away a great deal of pressure and anxiety In Shaa Allah.

Praying

This is the most important one. Praying is something that I do during certain times in my day, month, and year. I’m not happy with that. Prayer, to me, should be something that isn’t scheduled in around tasks and events. I’d like to get to a state where I’m scheduling my life around prayer – not squeezing it in here and there. I’d also like turning to Allah to be something instinctual for me. It is when I’m scared or if I need something but I want it to be more than that. I want to be grateful when good things happen and express that gratitude. I want to ask Allah’s help when I’m planning things or when I’m embarking on a new journey. I want to embed prayer so deep into every facet of my life that it would be impossible to ever remove and I want to start with that right now.

I do have some other goals for 2019 (like making videos and publishing a new book) but these three are the main ones that I will be pouring my energy into for the time being.

Do you have an idea of what you want to achieve this year? Let me know down in the comments below!