Towards the end of 2019 I began to struggle with who I was becoming.  I was sure that the person I was did not match up to who God wanted me to be.  I was becoming lazy, complacent, negative, and sad.  So I decided that it was time to reinvent myself but I didn’t know where to begin.  So I did what everyone does when they don’t know what to do…I googled it.  From my research I came up with a list of things I needed to do this year if I was going to become the best version of myself and I thought I would share a few of them with you, so here it goes:

1 – YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT
You’ve heard the saying, you are what you eat.  Well it’s also true that you are what you think about.  If you are going to reinvent yourself you have to visualize who you want to become.  One of the first things I did was create a VISION BOARD that included what I wanted life to look like for me over the next five years.  Some of the things on my Vision Board are: living the Jesus Centered Life, losing 30 pounds, spending more time with my wife & kids, becoming a better communicator, eating healthy, running a 5k, creating memories with my family, and becoming a blogger (thus this blog).

Now that’s a lot and I realize I can’t tackle all these things at once.  So I am prioritizing and setting small, reasonable, and measurable goals like losing a pound a week, exercising once a week, reading a book on communicating and so on.  The important thing is that I am keeping my vision board in front of me because you become what you think about. 

2 – GET UP AND MOVE
This one is big for me.  It’s so easy to sit behind my desk and write sermons, respond to emails, create graphics, and dream about the future.  But it’s not good to sit around all day.  I have come to realize if I am going to reinvent myself then I need to get up, move around and stop feeling sorry for myself.  My wife got me a fit bit watch for Christmas.  This thing is great because it reminds me that its time to move!!  So this year there is going to be a whole lot more movement going on.

3 – ACCEPT FAILURE
Failure is inevitable and you’ve got to embrace it, learn from it, and keep moving forward.  Listen, there is no participation trophy in life.  We can’t avoid failure.  And we shouldn’t be ashamed of it.  Failure is a great tool that can teach us many valuable lessons.  I don’t know about you but I hate to lose or fail but I am learning that failure is a great motivation and a great tool for learning.  So instead of letting failures get me down I am being intentional about learning from my failures.  

4 – WAKE UP EARLY
Get out of bed you lazy dog!  Don’t get me wrong, getting 8 hours of sleep is a big deal but so is getting up early and getting your day started.  I find that a part of reinventing myself and getting healthy is making sure I am getting to bed on time so I get eight hours and then getting up early and getting my day started.  There is so much you can get done.  When I get up early I have time to eat breakfast, read my Bible, journal or read, pray, get ready for work, take out the garbage, and so much more!  I don’t feel rushed and I find myself way more productive when I choose to get up rather than sleep in.  So seize your day by starting it early.  You will be more refreshed and less stressed.

These are just a few concepts I am embracing as I reinvent myself.  I will share more with you soon.  Let me just say this, if you don’t want to change you never will.  You will just stay the same old version of yourself.  I for one want to become the best version of me for my God, my family and my church and I hope you do too.