Goals are one of those subjects I have a delightful time talking about on Noveltea. I regularly have daily, weekly, and monthly goals, as long as longer term ones. It’s been rewarding, productive, and fun for me to share my goals with y’all over the last while, cause not only does it help keep me on track but I’ve gotten great feedback from lots of y’all regarding setting goals of your own.

Because of that, I strive to always show both sides of the coin to you – both when I do and when I don’t accomplish my goals. I don’t want to look like this girl who has it altogether when it comes to checking off my list of things to do, cause that would be totally unrealistic. I can 100% relate to how it feels to wonder how some people accomplish all they do – especially when everything they post makes them look successful.

If you hang around Noveltea for any length of time it becomes apparent that I don’t have any qualms about sharing the tough stuff and mistakes along with the good. That’s cause I think it’s extremely important to be relatable and helpful and human instead of just looking like a wonder-woman. John Maxwell says “You can either impress people or empower them, but you can’t do both.” So, that pretty much sums it up.

All that intro to introduce the fact that I’m not setting goals for May. 

It became apparent around the half-marathon last October that my body hasn’t recovered all of the way from my seven-year fight with Lyme disease. I’m not still sick (thank God!), but I do get worn out extremely fast and need more rest than the average person. The problem with this is that I might have a slight obsession with achieving and checking things off a list and moving forward toward where I want to be in life. And all those things are good when balanced, but unfortunately balance is still one of those elements I’m working at achieving in life. Which means I might sometimes push my body past what is healthy in order to keep getting things done.

For the month of May I’m staying near the beach in Mexico. I did this last year and accomplished a huge amount of things – in fact it was one of the most productive months of 2016. I was all excited about being able to accomplish another huge list of things this year. I wanted to re-write the third draft of Echoes, study everything I could find about how to be a successful vlogger, learn how to edit on iMovie, read a stack of nonfiction books, and the list went on. (And as a writer, those things are all part of my job.)

At the same time, I was looking forward to hopefully getting to rest more, because I have been utterly exhausted recently. And, by that I mean that despite being excited about life and enthusiastic about my goals and wanting to check things off my list, I spent hours each day for the last while where I could hardly focus because I just wanted to sleep. I was taking daily naps and had been sick for the last month. The thought of sleeping for a couple of months was quite delightful. Except I didn’t have time to do that, cause of y’know I needed to be doing important stuff like, accomplishing.

Then, a week ago I went to my wellness doctor who has been helping me stay on the correct course to become totally healthy after Lyme disease. Without hesitation she informed me that I needed to take it easy for a while – sleeping more and chilling – because my adrenals, thyroid, and immune system were all so tired they were all deciding to take a break. So, if I don’t take the time to rest now, then my health will decline to the point where I not only have to rest, but I’ll have to rest for a lot longer. That actually made a lot of sense.

After thinking it through and listening to others and praying about it for a while, I decided to forego setting goals for this month. Cause, you see, even though I want to set goals for May, when I step back and look at the long-term picture, and I mean thirty years down the road…. Well, that’s when I get a better perspective. Moment to moment, day to day, checking things off a list is a lot of fun and gets me closer to where I am striving to be in life. But, if I don’t also take care of my health, then eventually I’m gonna totally crash, and there’s nothing productive about that.

Besides, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is sin you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Cor. 6:19-20) Because of that, I want to make sure I take care of my body instead of just always zooming ahead full-steam. (Cause obviously I would eventually crash if I did that, anyway.)

I’m still looking forward to getting things done this month, but each time I have the urge to push myself to go into accomplishing-mode, I remind myself that this is my Month of Grace. Instead of going, going, going, I’m giving myself grace to sit back and take a nap. To close my eyes and just bask in God’s goodness. To not worry if I don’t blog by 9:30, or even if I miss a couple of days. Instead of rushing to check things off my list, I’m going to stop and think about why I’m wanting to do something, and then think about if I really need to or not.

I realize it’s not possible for all of y’all to take time to rest while needed, but I pray that those of you who are pushing yourselves will be able to gain perspective like I have, and perhaps find a way to cut back a little. And, no matter who you are, remember to extend grace – not only to yourselves when needed, but also to others. Cause, grace really does make life better.

I would be delighted to hear about y’all’s goals for May, and I look forward to being back to setting goals in June. In the meantime, I’m thankful for this chance to “Come aside and rest a while.”

And now I’m off to play Uno with my little brother….