2016: Grow or Die!

Watercolor study of the Two Sisters

(Northwest Cascades)

What passes through your mind as you stand on the verge of a new year?  Are you the type that makes New Year's resolutions?  Or are you fairly nonchalant about life and take things as they come?  Many of us take time at this annual milestone to reflect over the past year and to renew our focus for the coming year.  I like to pick a word that encapsulates what I would like to do in the coming year.  Its brevity helps to remind me over the months to come what actions I need to be executing in order to stay on course.  So the word GROW has weighed in as the word of the year for me.  Let me break that down so you can see how it works for me.  

Here's my art studio supervisor Michelangelo showing our focus.  He wants to point out that if we are not growing, we are dying.  As a living organism our bodies are always growing new cells to replace what is worn or damaged.  As a living soul we humans need to be growing in our persons as well.  If we want to avoid stagnation or loss of inner life and productivity, we need to be seeing to it that we are nurturing our souls and being open to opportunities for growth.  Here are five ways to use the word GROW as an acronym to develop some areas for growth:

Growth takes time.  Patience and marathon endurance need to be the mode for growing. So often we start out with the best of intentions and jump in with huge resolve only to peter out in the coming weeks.  But start small and keep it simple.  Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne had a phrase that I find helps to keep me encouraged. That phrase was "Keep the chains moving forward!"  In football they use chains to measure in determining if a team is gaining ground.  I use that motto as a reminder to keep in the chase towards my goals.

Here I'm not referring so much to physical weight loss, although that could be a part of one's personal growth goal this year.  What I think of is what Paul says in Hebrews 12 about getting rid of the weight that so easily slows us down in our life race.  What makes it hard to progress and isn't necessary to our lives, but we allow it?  Is it fear?  Worry?  Laziness? Pride?  It is something we allow and because of that, we can also choose to deny it's access to our thinking.  Perhaps this year we can begin to eliminate that from our thought process.

Here I have in mind things that are detracting us from our main goals.  For many of us in this digital age, it could be the Internet and how it robs us of time better spent on keeping the chains in forward motion.  That's a hard one, for sure!  I struggle with that.  Other people and activities that pull us away from what is best could also be a distraction.  Life is too short to waste the moments we are given.  It requires good time stewardship!

Growth as a person results in outward thinking towards others.  As we grow in our persons, abilities, and resources, we are better able to affect other's lives for the good.  We can make a difference and leave the world a better place for our having loved and given of ourselves.

We need to keep expanding our horizons and be open to experiences that stretch us, taking us out of our comfort zones.  We grow as we learn to "think outside the box".  We grow as we meet difficulties and challenges with innovative approaches.  Keep learning new things. Study hard. Fear stagnation in your life!  Enrich your soul so that you in turn can enrich others.  This is what I want to do in 2016....I want to GROW!

Live bravely and beautifully!