Jan 10, 20192 min read

My new year is starting bad. Is yours?

My year has already had a setback. Maybe you can relate.

I came into the new year mentally tough. My family and I had a fantastic Christmas break in Missouri for about two weeks. A lot of fun with the in-laws and then my side of the family. We brought in the New Year with some great friends in Cincinnati.

I had an aggressive start on some action items starting off 2019:

ordered my BestSelf journal for accountability on some high first-quarter goals
each family member picked their ‘one-word’ for 2019 (BTW – watch out, my 6-year old was determined to not shorten his…’to stand up for other people’…so be ready for a 6-year old on-guard 🙂 )
my 14-year old daughter and I thought through her goals and ideas for 2019 using the Five Capitals framework
great client calls to start off the new year
inspiring podcasts, book reading, etc.

And then it hit.

I got knocked down with bronchitis. I am grateful I rarely get sick, but this one took me out for almost two weeks. Foggy head, more coughing than talking, more sleeping than awake.

Bronchitis derailed the strong start, killed motivation, and entered self-defeating thoughts:

too intimidated to write in my BestSelf journal
no desire to critique the new book cover designs I received
my daily routines of scripture and journaling stopped
losing the holiday weight is going the other direction
the devil was telling me 2018 momentum has come to a stop
and on and on and on

Maybe you didn’t get bronchitis, but something has knocked you off your ideal start to the new year.

The downward spiral stops now.

If you have experienced the same disappointing start to the new year – it is time to get back up.

Anytime we are pressing into something good for the Kingdom, evil is going to try and stop us. If we choose to get back up, it is a great sign of what’s to come.