Living in the In-Between

Hi loves & happy 2026!

I'm curious how many of y'all have New Years Resolutions. Any of the typical "exercise more," "travel more," "spend more time with family" ones? Or maybe you have a bunch of little goals, like checkpoints to achieving a bigger goal? Or perhaps you're just so relieved to be done with 2025, you haven't even bothered with planning anything for the New Year, yet.

Resolutions or not, I think it's fair to say most of us see January as a fresh start. A time to look at where we've been and what we did (or didn't) accomplish, and pursue the future with renewed vigor.

And I think that's great. Those who know me know how much I love making my lists of goals for a New Year. But I also know, from experience, that the drive to fulfill these goals isn't always consistent. Much like an inexperienced marathon runner, we set off with way too-fast and too-ambitious speed, and find ourselves burned out before we've even hit the halfway mark.

(Don't worry, this isn't about to be one of those "how to break resolutions into attainable goals" posts.)

One of the hardest parts of, well, anything, is the waiting. Waiting to see results while you're working out & eating healthy. Waiting to hear back after an interview that you know you nailed. Waiting for all the hard work you've been doing for the last couple of weeks, months, years, to finally pay off.

With any new venture---whether it's a New Years goal or personal project----it's easy to get discouraged when we aren't seeing any progress. We start to question if we're doing something wrong. Is there a shortcut? Is it worth it to keep trying, after all this time? Maybe it's just not in the cards for me.

It's really easy to fall into this mindset. Especially when there's no evidence to disprove it.

I saw a cartoon, once, that compared working for success to a person mining for gold. Every new dig-site is a failed attempt, and after 10 failed attempts, they quit. Another person tries it, and gives up after the 99th failed attempt. Little did they know, the 100th attempt would have been the one to strike gold.

And it's easy to look at those little cartoons, where we can see the gold waiting right there, and question why they gave up. But when we're in the thick of it, with failed attempt after failed attempt around us, it's a little easier to understand.

I think something that makes this even harder---asides from the fact none of us like failure---is that we gauge our success on reaching certain goals. Which isn't necessarily bad, until we start ignoring everything we've accomplished because we're not at X, yet. When we base all our success and worth on reaching our goal, we forget to celebrate all the work we've done. We lose sight of the good things we already have.

We trick ourselves into being discontent unless we have "blank," without realizing there'll be another goal we want, and we'll be discontent once again.

Life isn't the checkpoints. It isn't the achievements. Life is the in-between moments, the ones we already spend most of our time living in. It's the sleepless nights of studying, the teary talks with friends, the encouraging and loving words from family.

When working towards something---big or small---we have to remember to enjoy the process. Have dreams and celebrate the achievements, of course. But take the time to appreciate the in-between moments, too. They're the ones that define a life.

Love y'all!

"Until the time came to fulfill his dreams, the LORD tested Joseph's character. Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free; the ruler of the nation opened his prison door. Joseph was put in charge of all the king's household; he became ruler over all the king's possessions."--Psalms 105:19-21