Wow. I did it – I dared myself to live boldly for 31 days and wrote about it. Honestly it didn’t all go as planned; about halfway through I couldn’t think of any other activities to do that would make me feel more bold in life. I started to feel rundown and tired, both physically and emotionally. I thought about quitting. I kept thinking of all the goals and things I want to do by the end of the year, none of which felt like they were being served by completing this little dare. But I also couldn’t let myself sit there and just flake on something I’d already invested 2 weeks of life into, so I did it.
And here we are.
Y’all, I have been in a serious funk working through all of the junk over these past 4 weeks. I’ve seen the fear and the lies that I’ve lived in for far too long, and I’ve seen the Lord’s truth behind living boldly. It’s been life-changing to say the least, but even past that is the heart change. Taking a chance on God, who has taken a chance on me, is the best thing I’ve ever done. Allowing Him to work in my heart has been hard but completely worth it.
I think the biggest question I have is this: what now? Now that I’m emboldened and tired of living in fear, what do I do with that? How do I continue to live out this 31 day dare for the rest of my life?
The way I see it is that it’s going to take baby steps. Some will go backward, but most will go forward. Every moment will be a dare to live with a heart so full of Christ that there won’t be room for fear. Sometimes I will fail, but there will always be grace.
The next few months hold some pretty big potential changes for us, but my goal is to push myself to finish some of the #LiveBoldly challenges that I took on:
- I’m going to start and finish my book proposal + start looking for an agent. This terrifies me, but the reality is that it’s not my story and it’s not my book – it’s God’s. He’ll do whatever he needs to for His glory, and since he created the entire universe I think he can handle a book. So there, take that fear.
- I’m going to lessen the amount of “stuff” we have by at least half, donating most of it to some really amazing organizations in our area. I will DEFINITELY be blogging about this one because I think it’s really cool how getting rid of the junk can make room for courage and LIFE.
- I’m going to work on creating. Writing, painting, woodworking, cooking, sewing. It’s going to be scary and fun and likely a huge mess. But since I’ll have rid myself of a ton of stuff there will be room for that now 😉
- I am also going to get back to the root of my little online space here and start posting more recipes again. I have some ROCKING ones in the wings for you guys, so stay tuned for next week!
- I’m going to invest in relationships more. I get terrified about this one, choosing to put up some pretty big walls to my heart most of the time, but I want to change that. I refuse to live in fear, choosing to let God fill me up so that I can love with abandon.
- I am (we are) going to rework some numbers and make two major goals happen: growing our family and traveling more. This one will definitely not be easy, but big dreams rarely are!
31 days is a short amount of time to rework your entire line of thinking, and I look back and realize that there’s no wonder I’m tired. But I am so ready to dominate this life, to live boldly and without the bonds of fear killing the dreams and chances I’ve been given. Let’s do this, shall we? 🙂
Congratulations on reaching your goal! It was a a big goal and I am impressed. I look forward to reading about your next adventure 🙂
Did you take that photo? It’s SO gorgeous! I want to go where-ever that is.
31 days of blogging really tired me out too – and not just the having to write everyday, but the processing of BIG stuff. I definitely like your plan for moving forward; I’m working on figuring mine out still.
Thank you Janelle! I did – it’s in a random neighborhood in Little Rock we were visiting yesterday, but the trees around here all look like that!
It was an absolute pleasure to read your transformation, Heather. Thanks for being so bold to share it.
Have you read 7? It’s the Jen Hatmaker book about getting rid of clutter. Kinda neat.
I love that you hand over all fear about your publishing to God. I’m going to try to do that today. Always.
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED 7 – I should probably go back and read it actually!
You know I’m here for you if you need a shoulder to lean/cry on with book stuff. It’s not going to be easy, but MAN will it be worth it!
It’s funny hearing you are decluttering your life… I have started on some of mine… of course I am older and have TONS more stuff I’m sure. But my children are older, my youngest will graduate high school this year. I realize that stuff can start to own you if you don’t watch out, and it’s just STUFF. As I do this if something is hard to throw/give away, set it aside and come back to it. And sometimes if your selling it,,, it is only worth what you can get for it …. not always what you think its worth, that’s a hard one to realize. Good luck in your purging!
I’m so glad to know we’re not alone in the decluttering journey! So many lessons to learn from it, right?!
I feel like I am doing a little booty dance in your honor Heather! Reading this makes me want to wake up and take on the world. Go get ’em girl! Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us–upward and onward we go 🙂
Aw YAY for dancing! I’m not so much good at the booty dancing, but I’ll try my hardest 😉
You are so right – now comes the hard part BUT all things are possible through Christ who gives us strength! 🙂 I have really enjoyed reading all your live boldly posts this month and am glad you stuck it out.
AMEN! And thank you – I loved reading all of your running posts this month too. So much to learn from such a simple activity, right?!