Create a New Future for Yourself This Year!
Want to change your life?
Consider “reinventing yourself” to
make a dream come true this year.
And don’t let your age stop you.
“The best way to know your future is to create it yourself,” someone once said. While it’s true that we have a lot of control over the direction our life’s journey will take, many things beyond our control will naturally impact our daily life and decisions.
I like this perspective from Dr. David Jeremiah, a favorite pastor and author. In a New Year’s message titled “Writing Your Story,” he said:
“Journeys have a beginning and an end, but we can’t always predict what comes in between. And that’s where our faith comes in. We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.”
Since each year opens another chapter in our life’s journey, I hope you still have unrealized dreams and goals that will spur you onward in the months ahead—in spite of all the disturbing things happening in the world around you. I believe our focus needs to be on things we can control, such as our attitude.
Thanks to how I was raised, I’ve always had a hopeful and optimistic attitude about life, which makes it easy for me to relate to Helen Keller’s philosophy:
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
If you’re unhappy with your life, or perhaps simply older—or retired from your life’s work and feeling aimless—maybe it’s time to try something new and exciting for you. Perhaps my experience, documented in “How to Be a Fearless Dreamer and Reinvent Yourself at Any Age,” will give you some perspective on the benefits of being open to change.
Some people live one day at a time doing what they’ve always done—merely waiting to see what happens next—but I think most of us tend to make plans for specific things we want to do in each new God-given year. Living like this has always given me a reason to get up each morning with a positive attitude and hope for the future. And as all my writing indicates, my hope for the future is grounded in my faith.
Making God my CEO in 1994 was the smartest thing I ever did. As I’ve said in another article, “Found: A New Source of Strength,” given half a chance, God will help us achieve our special dreams and be all we can be in both our personal and professional lives. Our greatest strength may well lie in our brains and talent, but let’s never forget who gave them to us in the first place.”
Goal Setting Tips
As I’ve done throughout my home business life, I still follow the “Smart Tip” I gave in the first edition of my Homemade Money book:
“Put all your goals in written form since they will automatically become a plan. Keep them large enough to motivate you to go forward, yet small enough to be easily achieved.”
Sometimes the best goals are simply finishing things we weren’t able to complete the year before. One of my major goals in 2025 is to finally finish and publish Call of the Heart: A Rescue Dog’s Dream, which I began in 2019 and had to put on the back burner in 2021 to build this new website. (Learning how to load it with content and manage it took more time than I could have imagined.)
Simplify, Simplify!
Another major goal for 2025 revolves around the word SIMPLIFY, which I chose as my word of the year in 2020. It has become a timeless word and goal as I continue to look at everything in my personal and professional life that is stealing my time and energy or causing me mental grief or concern. One by one, I've been taking steps to deal with each of these issues.
Even though I had a huge garage sale in 2023, I still feel bogged down by other “stuff” I no longer want and need to get rid of while I still have the physical energy and mental desire to tackle this job. Feeling as though I’m drowning in paper, I’ve gradually been going through all the file folders in the twelve drawers of my office filing cabinets in search of everything that’s no longer relevant to my life, my writing, or my website work. The trash gets a generous offering of paper every week now.
As Joshua Becker, author of four books on minimalism and intentional living, says, “The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.” He adds that “Time spent on minimalizing possessions is never wasted.”
So here’s to all of us spending some time this year decluttering our lives. I urge you to reach for new dreams and reinvent yourself to make your life all you want it to be.
First published as a Brabec Bulletin in 2022. Updated in December 2024.
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