A most happy 2024!!! We’ve accomplished another year and have a brand new one with all manner of journeys ahead. That can be a little scary, definitely overwhelming, but also so very, very exciting.

I will be honest, I didn’t have the easiest December. Some deep insecurities that have been slowly rising to the surface burst out at the most inopportune time, life got stressful, and I struggled with one of the worst cases of creative block I’ve ever experienced. This eternal optimist who usually looks to the future with hope was having severe difficulty getting excited about anything.

My own negative thoughts were tearing me from the inside out and draining me so much that I struggled to see the point in anything I did.

So I did a thing that I need to do more but rarely allow myself… I talked to loved ones. I stopped putting on my “everything is fine” mask and allowed myself to feel things and be open. I cried…a fair amount. And I took a rest. I stopped pushing myself needlessly, stepped back, and breathed. Then I actively shoved those lying thoughts out of my head and replaced them with God’s truths.

It wasn’t an immediate fix. But over time it did wonders. Talking, being open and vulnerable, resting, saturating myself in God’s truths and not my own insecurities that filled my head with lies, being reminded that every single one of us has worth in God and pursuing the passions He gave us is important—there was so much healing.

Thoughts are powerful things, in every direction, and in the midst of all of this, another thought came to me. Actually, a word.

A Word for 2024

I love the tradition of choosing a specific word to live by for the year. Yes, I am all into making yearly goals and lists and things to strive toward. But so much of that can get overwhelming and like we have to do everything. Narrowing one’s focus to a single word helps keep straight on a path of growth, and yet also opens a doorway to so many unexpected lessons. Words have power, and sometimes a single word can expand to so many aspects of one’s life.

Without fail for the past many years, sometime during December, God lays a word on my heart. Sometimes when I’m praying, sometimes when I’m not even thinking about it. It’s just there.

This time, around mid-December when I was in the midst of inner turmoil, an interesting word came to me.

BOLD

For a moment, I had some pause. Because in this world that’s too loud with everyone’s personal opinions and the self-love movement, being bold can have some negative connotations. Being meek, turning the other cheek, possessing a gentle heart…these things have become rare and are so important.

Yet the more I considered this word that came to me again and again, I realized it is precisely the word I need to pursue for 2024.

Because being bold is not the same thing as being aggressive. It takes being bold to turn the other cheek. It takes being bold to hold on to a gentle spirit in a world drowning in pride and anger. It takes being bold to continuously love in a loveless world.

It takes being bold to follow Jesus and follow His plan and listen to His voice amidst the clamor.

Our personal fears and insecurities are some of the biggest roadblocks that keep us from following God’s plan for our lives. I let a lot of negative thoughts toward myself nearly crush me, thoughts that have been creeping in for a while. I let the little whispers in through a crack in the door and they pushed the door open farther and farther until they were screaming and taking over my mind to the point of debilitating me. I let so, so many insecurities push me away from pursuing things I love and seeing my purpose as a child of God. I was falling into victim mentalities, letting timidity hold me back again and again. I started allowing myself to believe that everything I did was worthless and dumb and why even bother with anything or share my thoughts because it’s all going to be stupid anyway?

Yeah.

Like I said, our thoughts are powerful.

As God and loved ones pulled me out of these drowning thoughts, the word bold whispered through my mind, and I knew… That’s exactly what I needed.

I have a lot of big goals for the future. A lot of scary, new, exciting things. And I also may be facing some pretty hard things this year. I’m going into this year already knowing it’s not going to be an easy one. So I considered making brave or courageous my words. But those weren’t quite right. Yes, those are things I need, but BOLD holds those things and, for me personally, more. Because it’s not just that I need to be brave, but demonstrate it.

I repeat: Words have power, and sometimes a single word can expand to so many aspects of one’s life.

The way I need to be courageous is to show boldness. Not bold in my own strength, not loud and prideful in what I can do, but bold in God’s strength He pours infinitely into those Who follow him. Bold in the unique gifts He has given me. Bold in knowing I have purpose on this earth and pursuing it with every fiber of my being. Not letting the fears paralyze me, not letting the insecurities corrode my mind, not letting the doubts make me hesitate. But boldly pushing onward even when I can’t see the path ahead because God can, and as long as my eyes are on Him, He won’t let me stumble.

I’ve already been putting this into practice and seeing the liberating results. Because, truly, there is such freedom in it. Insecurities are like chains, holding us back from transcending to what God created us to be. But His path is the only true and good one. His path is the BEST one. So why would we cower away? Why would we let our own thoughts and the world’s lies hold us back? There is so much freedom in chasing after Him with pure, reckless abandon. Shedding the fears, breaking from the lies, and darting forward into the unimaginable beauty and wonders He has before us.

Not to say following Him is easy. But chaining ourselves away from His glorious plan for us is infinitely harder in the end. True fulfillment comes from doing the hard things and living boldly in God.

So as I step into 2024 with all the unknowns to come, this is my focus. To let God’s truths fill my mind and be confident in the person He made me to be and continuously allow Him to make me more and more like Him instead of letting insecurities pull me back.

To be brave, to face all that is to come courageously, to chase after God’s plans for who I am to be and what I am to do without hesitation. To live boldly.

2024 Plans

Over the past couple of years, I haven’t been publicly listing my yearly goals. Though I do love the accountability, sometimes having expectations can really do a number on my creativity, put pressure where there shouldn’t be.

This year, in particular, it is hard to make a solid list of plans. I have them. Boy, do I have some exciting things in the works. But they don’t have a time limit. It’s all being taken one step at a time. And as I have some pretty big life-y things going on this year as well, I am giving myself grace in the goals department.

This year feels like it will be a year of preparation for big things to come.

I’d say most of us step into a new year with plans of doing more. I certainly get very ambitious at the start of the year and make a huge list of big accomplishments I’d like to see checked off by December 31st. And that’s good. Goals, pursuing dreams, expanding our horizons—those are all so important. But every time I think about taking this year as one of those doing more years—tackling half a dozen writing projects at once, heavily expanding my social media presence, really keeping up with everyone and everything—I sense a little, “Not yet” in the back of my mind. “One day soon, but not right now.”

And I realized that voice is right.

So instead of promising big, grand things from me this year, instead I am coming to say for the next little while I’m going to be a tad quieter with my online presence. Certainly not gone, but looser as far as constantly getting posts out and trying to keep up with everything. More flexible.

The thing is though, this does not mean I’m doing less. The very point is that this will free my mental energy and time to pour into some creative pursuits that will produce fruit for very exciting things in the future. I need to free up brainspace from immediate pursuits such as social media so I can pour my heart into prepping for good things to come.

This may seem like a quiet year from me, but it simply means that good things are in the works behind the scenes and that I’m taking time to grow and heal and learn and continuously find that joy and balance in this wild, hard, but beautiful creative life. Maybe making bold my word on a year where I may be quieter seems contradictory, but I feel God moving through it all. I can feel changes inside me. Scary changes. Good changes. Lots of stretching. And I am so excited to see where it all leads.

And the hope is that when I return, I will be ready to do the MORE goals. But sometimes we have to take a rest to build up strength for the journey ahead. The rest seasons are just as important as the doing ones.

Where to Find Me

With all that said, I am still here sharing much of my usual content:

• NEWSLETTER: I send out a newsletter on the first Thursday of every single month and it is the best way to keep up with what’s going on in my life, get a sneak peek at my writing projects, see the books, movies, and TV shows I’ve been reading, and get a dose of encouragement as I share the things I’ve been learning in my own writing and life journey. SIGN UP HERE.

• BLOG: Though posts here may be fewer and farther between, I absolutely still plan on sharing posts throughout the year!

• INSTAGRAM: My most used social media platform where I mostly talk about the bookish and writing life. Lots of bookish fangirling, geeking out, and writing encouragement to be found! FOLLOW ME.

• FACEBOOK: I finally got myself an FB account last year (yeeeah, I’m like 2 decades behind, but better late than never!), and though I don’t know how much I’ll be utilizing it this year, I’d love to friend you there if I haven’t! FIND ME HERE.

• FICFRENZY: The seasonal Fiction Frenzy Writing Challenges are not going anywhere! The Discord is alive and well and such an encouraging writing community. I plan on hosting a spring, summer, and fall challenge just like last year. The FicFrenzy newsletter is the best way to keep up with all the news there. SIGN UP HERE.

• WRITING COACHING SERVICES: I am still open for one-on-one writing coaching services as well. If you’re feeling bogged down by your writing goals this year and looking for simple ways to balance it all with everything else going on in your life, I feel you, friend. We are on this writing journey together and, in fact, shouldn’t take it alone. If you need someone alongside you to lift you up in this difficult road of being a writer, find the heart of your story through character work, and/or need simple ideas to balance it all, please contact me. I’d love to talk with you! FIND THE INFO HERE.

There we have it, my friends. 2024. I think it’s going to be an interesting year, but I can feel many good things coming.

2023 stretched me in many ways, and some of it was painful but so much of it was also beautiful and needed. I am stronger because of it and ready to take what I’ve learned, grow into it, and prepare for big things to come.

Happy 2024, friends! I pray it is a blessed one. <3

Let’s discuss all the things! How was your Christmas and New Year’s? Are you excited for 2024? Any big plans in the horizon? Do you choose a word for the year? I’ve missed you guys and would love to hear about it all!