Me and my flaws flew into 2011–all 4 gazillion of them. And while there are definitely some things I hope to get a better grip on in this new year, perhaps the biggest one is giving myself a bit more grace.

Don’t get me wrong: I have every intention of hitting that treadmill… hard, and I’m even cooking up some worthwhile stories to give some of my goals some context (Donald Miller would be proud). But I also want to kick my worst critic to the curb. The one that tells me I’ll never be good enough or smart enough, and gosh darn it, no one will ever like me. That’s right, in 2011, I will be bidding ado to my self-loathing-to-quote-Taylor-Swift-Why-You-Gotta-Be-So-Mean?-to-myself ME. Yes, I did just reference a Taylor Swift song, but I am a celebrity blogger, and at some point, you’ve just gotta go with it already.

For someone who believes God’s mercies are incredibly, unfathomably new every single morning, why do I declare my efforts at life a wash by noon? With self-declarations that will undoubtedly miss the mark for me and everyone I know and care about, perhaps I’m overshooting by stating I will make major life changes inside of one year. If I really believe life is a journey and I’m a continual work in progress, then I think it might be best to stop beating myself up when I don’t shape up (take that literally, figuratively–oh, the puns they are alive and well). Besides, some of these self-sucker punches can leave a mark. For reals.

So… for 2011, I do decare (Insert Southern drawl; I do live ‘neath the Mason-Dixon line, y’all) to be a bit more compassionate with myself, and will pray to root myself in love (Eph. 3)–my only ‘goal’ for the new year. I wanna do better by the people I’m a fool for; therefore, I think I need to be a little less foolish in my dealings with me.

As for dreams, those I’ve got in spades. But I’m not going to live life with a ticking clock breathing down my neck.

Dreaming big sans monkey on back–

Master of What? (and that’s good enough for now)

Photo credits: Federaltimes.com