A new calendar year tends to spark a sense of passion and urgency in you. With intense passion, you fire up your notes app, grab your planner, and start mapping out your takeover plan for the year, convincing yourself that this year of all years will finally be different.

Almost every week in college, my best friend would ask me to help her create her weekly routine and schedule. Why? Because routines matter.

We’re more than halfway finished with the year. Where do you stand with your goals? Maybe this year hasn’t gone as planned so far and you feel like you’ve failed at every single one of your goals.

Living freely and lightly is something that I’ve always struggled with. Call it my Enneagram One(ness) if you will, but my ambition to see change, growth, and success has often dually straddled the line of being a fiery passion and a demanding burden, often because for me there is always work to be done and improvements to be made.

I’ve never cared too much for change. I have no shame admitting that I love stability and comfort. Don’t we all to a certain degree? Whether it’s the comfort of hearing your mother’s voice, or the contentment of walking into your cozy home, or the gratification of having a steady paycheck, the truth is we all crave comfort and favor the familiar.

Last summer, I was in the throes of wedding planning, and if you’ve been married before you know what that means: stress upon stress upon stress. We were four months out from the wedding and almost every other day was filled with venue visits, cake tastings, decor meetings, and other taxing to-dos.

Feel like no matter how hard you try that you can’t move forward? We all want to make an impact in our lives, family, and work. It’s why we mostly crave feelings of fulfillment, progress, and productivity. We hate being stuck

What season of life do you find yourself in? Are you in a dry season? A waiting season? A hustling season? A test and trials at almost every turn season? Or maybe even a harvesting and reaping season? The truth is that God has created us to be seasonal people.

How disciplined are you really? Are you committed to your goals? Do you push yourself past your limits to take action? Do you put the right systems and structures in place to make sure you’re actually succeeding?