Hello, friends, and happy new year! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful 2013, and I hope that you’re excited for what’s to come in 2014. I know I am.

This is the time of year where everyone is making their New Year’s resolutions. Most everybody has some sense of what they hope to change in the coming year. For some people it may be to exercise more or to eat more healthy foods. For others, it may be about enriching relationships and spending less time at work. No matter what it is, I think we can all think of at least one thing that we’d like to look back on a year from now and see some sort of change in.

But we rarely follow through on our New Year’s resolution. The problem I see with them is that they always seem to be really vague. A lot of people say they want to lose weight as their New Year’s resolution. That’s all well and good, but if you don’t have a plan of how you’re going to accomplish your goal of losing weight, then you’re probably not going to make much progress. And besides, if your goal is simply to lose weight, you could lose half a pound and consider your goal achieved. No, a good New Year’s resolution is specific about what you hope to achieve, and it comes along with a plan of how you hope to accomplish your goal in the 365 days you’ve given yourself to accomplish it.

I’ve never had much success with New Year’s resolutions, mostly because of the problems I just talked about. So this year, I’m going to be specific about what I hope to achieve in 2014, I’m going to detail my plans now instead of trying to figure them out later, and I’m sharing my goals with you guys so that hopefully you can offer me some accountability. Maybe this will be the year my New Years resolutions are successful.

So here we go. These are my 2014 New Year’s resolutions.

1. Write every day.

I don’t know about you, but I love to write. I discovered this pretty recently. I started out just journaling in Day One before bed to clear out my thoughts so I could sleep at night. I still do that, but now I’ve started doing more creative writing, and it’s something I really enjoy. It turns out that writing can actually be fun when you’re writing something for yourself and not for a grade.

So I bought this awesome creative writing app called Byword, and my goal is to use it every day to write something. Doesn’t matter what it is. It could be a blog post or a script or a song or a haiku. I just want to set aside some time each day to get away from the to-do lists and the papers and the assigned readings and just write whatever my heart desires.

2. Start a Bible journal and choose a verse of the day.

I read the Bible everyday, and for the past few months, I’ve been sharing a verse from my readings everyday that I think will encourage others. But I don’t think that reading a few chapters and sharing a verse everyday is enough. I’m going to start writing out responses to my Bible readings in a journal that I can save and expand on as I read through the Bible over the years. I’m also going to pick a specific verse out of my readings each day to focus on throughout the day and share on social media along with some thoughts on that verse. I think this well help me think more deeply about what I’m reading and also choose a specific verse to memorize, apply, and share each day.

3. Film a 1SE video.

I tried to make a 1 Second Everyday video last year, and I kept it going until sometime in July. But I ran into some serious technical difficulties over the summer and decided to stop becuase I had no way of sharing the videos and therefore no reason to keep making them. But good news! They finally released a fix for the app just before Christmas, so I’m going to give 1SE another shot. I want to make every day count, and I want to share those moments with you. So be looking out for a new 1 Second Everyday video at the end of each month, and if you’d like to be in one, just let me know.

4. Keep a consistent blog schedule.

For those of you who don’t know, I relaunched my website in November, and I’ve started a weekly blog. I tend to write about my own experience of living the Christian life and what I have learned from it. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my experiences that way, and I hope that you guys enjoy reading it.

Anyway, I’d like to continue doing those weekly blogs on Tuesdays, so that will stay the same. On top of that, I’m also going to start a series on my blog called Stuff Devon Likes. I’ve done this before, but I want to make it a regular thing. It’s where I do a write-up on someting that I enjoy and want to recommend to you. It might be a movie or a song or an app. It’ll change each week, and if you have something in particular you’d like for me to review, I’d be happy to look into it. Stuff Devon Likes will be posted on Saturdays.

Besides my weekly blogs and the Stuff Devon Likes series, I’ll also do some sporadic blog posts on what’s going on in my life. Between these three, I hope to have consistent, quality blog posts that share my thoughts, my experiences, and things I find noteworthy throughout the year.

Conclusion

So there ya go. I’m going to write something everyday, no matter what that something is. I’m going to keep a Bible journal and share a verse of the day along with my thoughts on that verse. I’m going to post monthly 1 Second Everyday videos. I’m going to blog on Tuesdays and post Stuff Devon Likes articles on Saturdays. At the end of the year, I hope to have a Bible journal covering the entire Bible, 12 1SE videos, 52 blog posts, 52 Stuff Devon Likes articles, and some sporadic blog posts updating you on my life. Wow. That’s a lot. But I think I can do it, and I think it’ll be worthwhile if I do it right.

So why am I doing all this, you ask? Why bother making these videos and writing all these blog posts if I’m not even sure anyone will watch or read? Well, it’s because I want to share my life with you. Whether or not you participate is completely your choice, but I want to invite you, my friends and family, to join me in this exciting year of my life.

This year is going to be crazy. In May, I’m going to graduate from Hendrix College. I’m going to be traveling most of the summer on all these crazy trips that my church sends me on. And in August, I’m going to be moving to Waco, Texas, to start working on my Masters of Divinity at Truett Seminary. And that’s just a few of the things I have planned for 2014. This time next year, I hope to be finished with my first semester of seminary and preparing for my second. I hope to be a little older, a little wiser, and a lot more experienced at this whole Internet thing.

So thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll join me on this exciting journey. No matter what, have a happy 2014, God bless, and I’ll see you on the Internet.