Three Ways to Start the New Year with Joy

Happy New Year! How do you feel as you enter a new year? Are you excited and ready for the plans ahead this year? Or are you still sinking into past sorrow or this year’s euphoria? 

How can you welcome the new year with fresh enthusiasm and a renewed mindset? These ways will help you close the old year and welcome the new one with joy!

1. New Year: Never Regret, Just Lesson Learnt!

As you look back on the year that has passed, what do you see? Goals you have successfully achieved? Dreams fulfilled? Or were there unexpected events that made you sad, disappointed, and even regretful?

Whatever happened in the past year, you can respond to those events positively. Bad things do not need to be regretted endlessly. We are all human beings who can make mistakes. 

Instead of drowning in regret, it is better to take wisdom and learn from the past. What you have done well, improve further. What needs to be corrected, correct it. God is good, and He will give you the opportunity to become an even better person.

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done and the purposes You have for us. None can compare with You! I would proclaim and tell of them, but they are too many to count. – Psalm 40:5 

If there were bad things, surely there were also good things you experienced. So, count the blessings that God has poured out on you throughout this year. Health, protection, work, friends, opportunities to travel, learn, grow, and rejoice in a healthy community, all of these are priceless gifts. Count your blessings! 

Be thankful for everything God has allowed to happen in our lives, whether bitter experiences or sweet blessings. A heart full of gratitude is a good way to begin the new year. 

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. – Proverbs 17:22 

2. New Year: Walk with Hope in God

Every time I enter a new year, a sense of worry crosses my heart. In fact, even at the beginning of December I am already thinking, “What will happen next year?” Even if everything goes smoothly this year, will everything still be all right in the next one? Will I still have what I have now? Will I still be able to be with the people I love next year?

Worry about the future is natural. However, we must believe that if God’s presence enabled us to get through many challenges this year, then in the year ahead, the same God will still be with us. He will enable us to go through everything, both joy and sorrow.

“Therefore I tell you: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; and do not worry about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Who among you by worrying can add a single cubit to the course of his life?” 

– Matthew 6:25, 27 

God’s Word says that our worries will not change anything. Excessive worry will instead steal your joy today. In this new year, surrender your life to God and walk with hope together with Him!

3. New Year: Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan!

Setting annual goals and making plans is something we must do at the beginning of every year. In fact, not only at the beginning of the year, but in every single day of our lives. Those plans should be SMART, as you can learn here.

Write down your goals for the coming year on a sheet of paper divided into 12 columns or sections, for 12 months. In each month, write the things you want to achieve so that you move closer to your dreams. Arrange them starting from the biggest scale, namely yearly. Then distribute those plans into monthly, weekly, and daily scales. If necessary, make a to-do list for your daily activities.

Sometimes, we do not always know the details of our plans. Personally, I will start simply by writing down the goal and its deadline, even without specific steps yet. Going forward, of course, more mature steps will be needed. For example, in July 2019, I wanted to travel to Bali. I wrote in the July column, “Trip to Bali.” Interestingly, plans like this can sometimes happen too. Research proves that simply by writing down your goals or dreams regularly, your chances of achieving them increase by 42%!

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For those of you who are not yet used to yearly planning, this is the right moment to begin. Do not be afraid to make plans. Making plans does not cost anything, does it? All you need is the willingness to make your life more directed and meaningful. Just start by writing down your goals or dreams, no matter how simple the form of that plan may be.

By not making plans, we are already planning to fail. If people who have carefully made plans can still fail, how much more those who make no plans at all?

Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness. (NLT) The prudent act with knowledge, but fools display their folly. – Proverbs 13:16

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. – Proverbs 21:5 

No matter how good your plans are, if you do not act and strive, everything will be in vain. So, just take one small step after another that brings you closer to your dreams, and see the result. 

Now, are you ready to welcome the new year with a new heart? Come on, do not keep regretting what has already happened. Take the lesson from it, and count your blessings. Cast away your worries, and walk with faith and hope in the Lord. Do not forget to make plans that align with those goals. 

Let us enter the new year with joy, hope, and enthusiasm! Thank you to the year that has passed, and welcome to the new year! Happy New Year!

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References:
www.huffpost.com/entry/the-power-of-writing-down_b_12002348

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