My Core Values

I didn't set any New Year's resolutions or goals this year, at least nothing real specific. Instead I am continuing on my journey of working to live my life more intentionally. In general, my only goal for this new year is to consistently live my life true to the values I hold highest.

For the past few months I have been working through developing a personal value statement, sort of my own elevator speech I can use to describe who I am and strive to be. I have always had a core set of personal values, but I wanted to combine them into one written statement that could easily sum up my person. It's not an easy task, I've discovered, and I have found myself wrestling over the smallest of details. I feel pretty good about what I've completed and think it accurately describes what I believe are my core values; and what point are values in your life if you're not willing to share them and be held accountable to them?

So here is what I have come up with:

Faith & Family, Relationships, Integrity, IMUA, Stability

In my words and actions, I consistently demonstrate my commitment and dedication to Jesus Christ and my family as top priorities and key relationships in my life, shaping who I am and strive to be. As a person of high integrity, I am an honest and ethical person, willing to make the "right" decisions, even in life's most difficult and stressful times. Striving to learn from the past, I embody the spirit of IMUA as I go forward in life, pushing on to be the best I can be. I am blessed with today and work hard for a better tomorrow to provide stability and support for those who depend on me.

So, while I have set no specific goals this year, living intentionally and true to my values brings with it a bunch of daily goals and actions. Here's to a successful year!

December Days - 12.31.09

31 days ago I started an effort to catalog my daily journey through the holiday season in the month of December. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, but I had some early assumptions and ideas. Initially, I had visions of taking my camera with me and capturing moments I found myself witness to or just images of the holiday season. Whatever it was that jumped out at me.

What I discovered along the way is that I was continually drawn to images with stories that were important to me, and more often than not the stories involved people that are close to me, specifically my family. The holiday happenings in my life focus around my family, as they should and that made the last 31 days fun to take pictures of and blog about. Even if no one else took notice of my posts, this was a great way for me to capture the holidays this year and I will most likely make this 31 day trek an annual activity.

As for the future of my blog, I'll certainly continue on with my ramblings in my attempt to move forward in life, but I don't think I'll stick with a daily update - who knows though, maybe. Either way, I look forward to a great 2010 and face a new decade excited for what lies ahead.