{"id":542,"date":"2016-12-31T23:27:53","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T23:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=542"},"modified":"2016-12-31T23:27:53","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T23:27:53","slug":"making-year-better-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/making-year-better-last.html","title":{"rendered":"Making Each Year Better Than The Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"explosion-firework-new-year-s-eve-december-31<\/a>Whenever I talk to people who are in their late twenties, they always say that turning 30 will mean that\u00a0they are\u00a0“old.” \u00a0They act as if being older than 29\u00a0is a tragedy. \u00a0My response is always the same: You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to my 20s. \u00a0With every decade, my life gets better. \u00a0In fact, I am happier now (in my 40s) than I ever have been.<\/p>\n

If you play your cards right, life gets better with each passing year. \u00a0Now my life hasn’t been perfect. \u00a0During the past two decades, I’ve gone through a divorce. \u00a0I’ve faced having an aging parent. \u00a0And I’ve dealt with\u00a0the challenges of being a single parent.<\/p>\n

All that being said, my life truly has improved with each passing year. \u00a0And I’ve found that if you approach life in the right way, it will improve<\/em>, no matter what obstacles you face. \u00a0Below are a couple of things that I’ve learned over the years as to how to make each passing year better than the one before:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pay Attention to Your Health:<\/strong> We can’t stop our bodies from aging. \u00a0Aging is part of life. \u00a0But we do have the power to age well or to age poorly. \u00a0When it comes to our bodies and our health, we reap what we sow. \u00a0As a result, the good habits we implement today – a healthy diet, regular use of sunscreen, consistent exercise, and yearly dental and medical checkups – will pave the way toward our feeling physically good in the future.<\/li>\n
  2. Believe in Yourself And in Your Dreams:<\/strong> When children are small, they have big dreams. \u00a0They perhaps want to grow up to be astronauts or pilots or movie stars. \u00a0But somewhere along the way, for most people, those dreams go by the wayside. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because there are lots of folks who want to tell others what they can and can’t do. \u00a0They will tell you to be “realistic” about your career aspirations. \u00a0They will tell you that you don’t have what it takes to achieve your goals. \u00a0Ignore them. \u00a0Be confident in your abilities. \u00a0Only God knows what you are capable of. \u00a0And if God has put a dream in your heart, it is because He wants you to fulfill it. \u00a0So if you want an amazing\u00a0future, believe in yourself and keep working toward your dreams.<\/li>\n
  3. Eliminate Unkind People from Your Life:<\/strong> When we are minors and under the care of our parents, we don’t get to choose with whom we interact. \u00a0However, the beauty of being a financially independent adult is that you get to pick with whom you spend your time. \u00a0That includes your family members and friends. \u00a0Admittedly, it takes confidence to say, “Uncle Bob or Aunt Jane is a rude person. \u00a0So I am choosing not to spend Thanksgiving with him (or her).” \u00a0It takes a lot more confidence to say, “My spouse is unkind to me, and he (or she) refuses to change how they treat me. \u00a0So I am leaving\u00a0this marriage.” \u00a0But if you want to see a dramatic improvement to your life, choose to spend your time with people who are kind to you. \u00a0Don’t spend your time with people solely out of obligation.<\/li>\n
  4. Do Your Best And Let God Handle The Rest:<\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong>It is hard to feel peaceful about life when\u00a0so much of life is outside of our control. \u00a0That is why it is important to have faith in God. \u00a0We need to believe in His power in our lives and in His goodness. \u00a0Now faith isn’t something that we develop overnight. \u00a0Faith is something that we will work at until the day we die. Without faith, we can’t\u00a0be at\u00a0peace when faced with life’s inevitable challenges. \u00a0Instead, we will feel overwhelmed. \u00a0We will think that we have to solve every problem by ourselves, when we simply don’t have the power to do so. \u00a0But when\u00a0have faith in God, we can\u00a0give our problems over to God, knowing that He\u00a0is both with us and for us<\/em>. \u00a0With faith, we learn that He truly can take all of our problems and turn them into blessings.<\/li>\n
  5. Take Care of Your Blessings:<\/strong> \u00a0When I was small, I didn’t have many toys. \u00a0I had one teddy bear and two dolls. \u00a0I truly cherished those toys, since they were all I had. \u00a0I don’t know where the teddy bear went, but the two dolls sit on one of the bookshelves in my office. \u00a0Having so little taught me to cherish what I have. \u00a0The more you learn to cherish what you have, the more you appreciate what you’ve been given. \u00a0It is easy to take what we have for granted. \u00a0How many marriages end in divorce because spouses criticize each other instead of appreciating each other? \u00a0How many parents lose their relationship with their kids because they grow frustrated with them instead of cherishing them? \u00a0How many of us have houses, cars and wardrobes that we don’t value because we want something bigger or better. \u00a0When we cherish what we have, we recognize how truly blessed we are.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If you approach life the right way, no matter what life brings, each year truly can be better than the last. \u00a0Consider the changes that you might make in 2017, so that it is even better than 2016. \u00a0You have the power to make 2017\u00a0your best year yet.<\/em><\/p>\n

    (Photo courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Whenever I talk to people who are in their late twenties, they always say that turning 30 will mean that\u00a0they are\u00a0“old.” \u00a0They act as if being older than 29\u00a0is a tragedy. \u00a0My response is always the same: You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to my 20s. \u00a0With every decade, my life gets…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-new-year"],"yoast_head":"\nMaking Each Year Better Than The Last - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/12\/making-year-better-last.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Each Year Better Than The Last - 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