Well, 2014 is coming to a close, and it’s been a great year! I graduated from Hendrix in May, worked at Cavanaugh Church this summer, and moved to Waco, TX, in August to attend Truett Seminary. There’s been a lot going on, but it’s all been good stuff, and I couldn’t be more thankful for the way this year turned out.

I thought that since 2014 is nearly over, now would be a good time to look back on the resolutions I made a year ago and see where I ended up on each of them as I start thinking through what I want to accomplish next year. I basically had four major resolutions for 2014, along with some smaller ones, and I feel like I did pretty well on most of them. So here’s an update on my 2014 New Year’s Resolutions and how I think they went this year.

1. Write every day.

My first major resolution was to write every day. I didn’t know exactly what I would write each day, but I knew that I wanted to write something, and I did. Sometimes it was really short, and sometimes I would spend an hour or more on one writing project in a day. But I wrote something every day, and I feel like it was really good for me as a creative outlet.

For next year, I want to keep writing every day, but I want to make it even more meaningful. I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to look yet, though. I may set aside a certain block of time each day just for creative writing, or I may set a goal of writing one big creative work this year (like a book or a movie). I’m not quite sure yet. But I know I want to take this goal further in 2015, because I think it’s been really good for me.

2. Bible journaling and verses of the day.

This was actually my most successful New Year’s Resolution, I think. I was able to stick to my Bible reading plan every day, reflect on what I read, and share a verse on social media. It was great. It taught me how to appreciate parts of the Bible that I usually just gloss over, and it taught me how to share God’s word in a way that’s meaningful to me and hopefully to others, as well. I’m really glad I decided to go through with this goal in 2014.

However, I think I’m going to change this one up in 2015 as well. While I enjoyed sharing a verse online every day, I started to feel like it may have been a bit of overkill towards the end. So I think that instead of doing a verse every day next year, I’ll just share verses and thoughts that mean a lot to me as they come up organically.

I’m also changing up how I journal next year. I’m going to keep doing my daily Bible reading out of the Old and New Testaments, but instead of journalling on two big passages every day, I’m going to focus my journalling time on more intense studies of individual books of the Bible. I want to really dig deep into specific parts of Scripture, letting them saturate, and maybe even tying in outside materials like commentaries and other people’s Bible studies. So that’s what I’m going to focus my Bible journalling on for next year, and it’ll probably turn into some fun blog posts as well.

3. 1 Second Everyday

I tried to do 1SE this year, but I just didn’t find it to be meaningful. It was distracting me from enjoying what I was doing when I was with family and friends, and I was constantly thinking, “OK, what is my 1SE going to be today?” That’s not meaningful or organic. It’s just distracting and stressful. Also, the 1SE just has a lot of bugs and doesn’t do well at keeping up with the newest operating system or hardware releases. So I abandoned this goal during the year, and I think it was the right decision for me. 1SE is a great idea that has been a wonderful experience for a lot of people, but it’s just not for me at this point in my life. However, I do want to incorporate video creation back into my routine again. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like yet, but you’ll be the first to know when I figure it out!

4. Keeping a regular blog schedule.

For those of you who read this blog regularly, you probably know that I’ve been posting articles weekly all year. I was able to fulfill my goal of publishing a personal blog post every Tuesday of 2014, and I’m super-proud of that! I’m going to continue my weekly blog posts on Tuesdays in 2015, and I hope you guys will stick around to read them.

You may have also noticed that my Stuff Devon Likes posts haven’t been as consistent lately. I tried to do one every Saturday this year, but to be honest, I got kind of burned out on them. I ran out of interesting things to write about, and when I had something interesting to write about, I never felt like I gave myself enough time to fully think it through. So I’ve decided to turn Stuff Devon Likes into more an organic, sporadic series of blog posts rather than a weekly one. I think this will allow me to choose things that I’m passionate about and spend more time on them, which will ultimately result in better blog posts.

5. Other goals.

Thoughout the year, I started working on some other goals that weren’t New Year’s Resolutions but were important to me, and they’ll become New Year’s Resolutions this year. The biggest new goal was to improve my health. Since I graduated college, I’ve started eating healthier, exercising regularly, and sleeping more. It’s been great. I feel better than I have in years, and I’m much happier with the way I look. But there is still a lot of room for improvement in that area, and I’m working on some concrete goals for my health in 2014.

I’ve also been reviewing my Spanish and doing some brain training through apps on my phone (Duolingo and Elevate). These have been great ways to work areas of my brain that aren’t always used to their capacity in school, and I think it’s been a good way to keep my mind sharp. It also adds some diversity among the reading, papers, and tests that I’m always doing for school. I’m very happy with the way those goals are going, and I’m going to keep doing them.

My personal journaling has kind of taken a backseat lately. With my focus on fitness and sleep (as well as my time commitments with school and work), it’s been hard to make time to sit down each day and really think through the events of the day and the feelings I experienced. I want to get back to that, because I think it’s really good for me. So maybe one of my resolutions for next year will be to set aside a specific time each night before bed to do some intense journaling. I’ll let you guys know how that goes!

So there you have it. That’s an update on how my New Year’s Resolutions went in 2014 and where I plan in taking them in 2015. I know this post went a little long, but if you took the time to read it, I really appreciate it. I’d love to hear how your resolutions went this year and what you plan on doing in the coming year! You can contact me on social media or though my contact page, and I’d be happy to chat with you. As usual, thank you guys for reading. I hope you have a safe, happy new year, and I can’t wait to share 2015 with you!