Happy New Year...A resolution to not make resolutions

First, you must understand that I don't make resolutions.  I RESOLVE to _______ what?  Eat better. Lose weight. Stop smoking. Be nice to people. Spend more time with my kids. Go to church every Sunday. Get a job, or a better job...the list goes on.  The truth is that most or all of these resolutions are fantastic.  It is also true that most of them will be discarded by the end of January. Whether it's just too hard to loose weight, or getting up early on Sunday morning is not your thing, it was just a silly resolution anyway. And we all know that resolutions are made to be broken. Right?  This is why I don't make resolutions.  When I say resolution I feel defeated before I even start.

Many years ago I decided to change the way I approached the whole New Year's Resolution thing. And that's when I got excited!

My thesaurus explains RESOLUTION like this:
noun
1 her resolution not to smoke: intention, resolve, decision, intent, aim, plan; commitment, pledge, promise.
2 the committee passed the resolution: motion, proposal, proposition, resolve.
3 she handled the work with resolution: determination, purpose, purposefulness, resolve, resoluteness, single-mindedness, firmness, firmness of purpose; steadfastness, staunchness, perseverance, persistence, indefatigably, tenacity, tenaciousness, staying power, dedication, commitment; stubbornness, doggedness, obstinacy, obduracy; boldness, spiritedness, braveness, bravery, courage, pluck, grit, courageousness; informal guts, spunk; formal pertinacity.
4 a satisfactory resolution of the problem: solution to, answer to, end to, ending to, settlement of, conclusion to.
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Don't look at the word resolution...pay attention to the words that DESCRIBE it. 

Each year I choose a word or phrase to help set my frame of mind and then I make a DREAM BIG list of all of the things I want to accomplish in that year.  (My favorite Illustrator and Author peeps from the SCBWI Carolinas also know this list as the HOLY SH*T list!) I know that I won't get to do everything, but I will accomplish some things.  And in doing so, I am making the commitment to start, the determination to follow through, have the spiritedness and spunk (I love those words) to handle the project and the courage to try again should I fail.  And yes, I will fail but not at everything.  I choose to have the pluck (another word I love) to get back in there and try again.

And you know what?  That DREAM BIG - HOLY SH*T list is yours and yours alone.  YOU own it.  There is one hitch...you can always add things, but you may not take anything away.  Sometimes those are the items that will go onto our 2016 list.

With 2014 coming to a close and 2015 jumping around anxiously waiting for midnight, I know this for certain...

In 2015 I will PRAY FIRST and DREAM BIG.  I will share my list a bit later.

What is on your 2015 DREAM BIG LIST?