The Purpose of a New Year’s Focus
This web-post is a bit of a New Year’s inspirational message or lesson in personal development for the New Year. The topic I’m discussing is what I call a focus statement. A focus statement is simply a focus for the entire year. We’re going to spend all year with this statement, this word, this focus.
Some choose to have a word for the year like health, nutrition, discipline, joy, adventure, finance, etc. You might be a person who needs a word like love to focus on because it’s an area you’d like to see improve. Others use a phrase like “Just Do It.” Using a phrase like this, the focus is on not procrastinating or building a new behavior that yields making results more quickly than you normally would. A phrase may be the answer to the change you desire to see within oneself.
A year is a long time and an opportunity.
Whether it’s a focus statement or a focus word, the goal is all the same. We wish to improve in a focused area of our lives. Now let’s talk about the year, which is the purpose of this writing. Since we’re at the start of a new year, it’s a good time to begin with a goal you wish to tackle. Notice I didn’t say have a new year’s resolution; in fact the purpose of the focus statement is to do something everyday around this phrase, whether that’s study it, read about it, or apply a practice. It’s not just a wish you make; it’s an action you take daily.
The goal is to do something that yields results in this area for an entire year. A year is a large chunk of time. In fact, being focused or intentional is a sure way to make sure you don’t squander this precious time. Using a focus statement is a guaranteed way you have something in place so that a year from now, you don’t look back at the year and wish you’d made this very significant change. For me, I don’t want to look back at a year and see that I’ve not made any significant accomplishments. In the words of the Apostle Paul, I’d like “my life to have been poured out as an offering to God.” [1] What a powerful statement.
Be inspired with a focus for the year.
So allow me to share a focus statement with you. Around my birthday, I was inspired by this phrase; I knew immediately that it would be our focus statement for the year (if Pamela cosigned that is). Nonetheless, it’s this. “Get back…”
You might not be one who receives inspiration for a statement or a word, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t focus on an area to improve. Maybe that word “improve” doesn’t sit well with you either. How about getting better at something or making something better? What could you stand to make better this year? Make that your point of focus for this next year.
“Get back…”
Let me state this here. We don’t have all the notes and information or ideas on this statement today because the goal is to spend the next 364 days on it. However, I’d like to share a few examples and ideas I have so far of what it means.
“Get back…” means there are some things we’ve once had that may have been lost, misplaced, placed on a shelf, and so on.
Examples of what we’re looking to “get back” begins with the following:
- Get back to hoping, hoping for things you once hoped for.
- Get back to believing, believing like you once believed.
- Get back to starting, starting something for the first time.
- Get back to finishing, isn’t it time to finish some of those unfinished projects?
- Get back to planning, get back to making plans for your dreams.
- Get back to dreaming.
- Get back to praying.
- Get back to talking.
- Get back to reading and writing.
- Get back to being and becoming.
- Get back to mentoring.
- Get back to learning.
- Get back to working.
- Get back to exercising.
- Get back to failing.
- Get back to succeeding.
Get back… Get back… Get back…!
Add faith to what you desire to do.
This next step not everyone will do, but it’s important for me, for us. We’re people of faith so we like adding faith to everything we do. So we consult scripture (The Bible) to help us begin and shape our focus statement. Here are a couple we will use to get started.
- Take your focus beyond what you can do on your own.
“Remember the things I [God] have done in the past.” [2]
Get back to remembering the things that God has done for you. Things only God could have made possible. I’d like to see myself getting back to this type of thinking. Let my focus for the year go beyond what I can do for myself, but focus on what God has done and can do. Sometimes we easily forget all the things He’s already done which leads us to believe He can’t do something for us again. - Get back up again.
“[A] righteous man falls seven times [a]nd rises again.” [3]
Notice how it says he or she falls seven times, but consistently gets back up. Getting up is like getting back. Get back up! For every phrase you can think of that you need to get back, think of it as getting up again. The average person falls but doesn’t get up. Don’t be average. Be uncommon by falling and getting back up. - Things worth having are always under attack.
“Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live.” [4]
The easy behavior is to let it go. Whatever it may be. That’s called “normal.” Therefore the behavior of the extraordinary is to get it back. The things worth having are always under constant attack and require a fight to maintain. This will require some discipline like staying alert, keeping close watch, not forgetting, maintaining heart, and staying vigilant. It’s time for us to “get back” these behaviors.
Welcome this new year with a new philosophy for living. Set a focus that you desire having, not anything trivial or mundane. Set your eyes on something that brings excitement, joy, and energy to obtaining. Get it back, whatever it may be. I leave you with this “get back” to what really matters to you. Happy New Year!
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Find out more about the Family plan here.Reference #1: 2 Timothy 4:6 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 28, 2021, https://bible.com/bible/116/2ti.4.6.NLT
Reference #2: Isaiah 46:9 NLT, Bible.com, accessed December 28, 2021, https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.46.9.NLT
Reference #3: Proverbs 24:16 NKJV, Bible.com, accessed December 28, 2021, https://bible.com/bible/114/pro.24.16.NKJV
Reference #4: Deuteronomy 4:9 MSG, Bible.com, accessed December 28, 2021, https://bible.com/bible/97/deu.4.9.MSG
All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.
