New Year’s Visions—Don’t Let Fear Sabotage Your Goals

How did 2024 get here so fast? I remember my grandfather telling me, long before I was mature enough to understand, that each year goes by faster than the one before it. The older I get, the more I can relate to how he must have felt. Yet, as each year passes, I still feel the tingle of anticipation for what might be.

It is a new year, after all.

Most of us view the new year as a chance for a new beginning. Maybe it is a time to right a wrong or correct a toxic habit. Maybe we make resolutions to read more, sleep more, or pray more—or eat less, spend less, or worry less. While resolutions are meant to change something, goals are what we hope to accomplish. Eating less may be the resolution to the goal of reaching a certain weight. Developing an organizational system may be the resolution to enable a writer to meet a deadline.

Have you ever set a goal, whether for the new year or not, and found yourself held back by fear? We make a plan that we know is good for us, but a gnawing voice in the back of our mind tells us that we can’t. It’s too hard, too much, too late.

My fear over the last year revolved around wondering if I started my writing journey too late—if I’m too old to just be embarking on something that already takes years for many people.

It hasn’t helped that life taunts me with my increasing age in ways that have nothing to do with writing. Like a bad joke—or a good sitcom—the comedy keeps coming, and I’m the punchline. I have to laugh, because these age reminders are usually the result of some mishap, like the day I turned disco.

One Sunday morning, as I rushed to get ready for worship, I grabbed a new eyeshadow and went through the motions without really paying attention to how it looked. Mamas out there, you know how this goes. You’re trying to get yourself ready, while answering a dozen questions from children, and directing them to find their shoes/Bibles/clothes/notebooks, while scurrying back and forth to the stovetop to make sure you don’t burn what you’re bringing to the church potluck lunch. Multitasking is a mother’s superpower.

Just before we left the house, I glanced in the mirror once more, and my heart froze. I was glittering. My new eyeshadow was not the subtle, middle-age-appropriate shimmer I thought I’d purchased, but the glittery kind for a college-aged party girl. I wiped my eyes during the drive to church, dismayed at how accurate the “smudge-proof” advertising was for this product.

If not for the new wrinkles that recently invaded my face, I wouldn’t even bother with it in the first place. But now my cute little lines simply sparkled as I entered a holy time looking like a walking disco ball.

At least everyone knows I’m not an attention hog. They also know I’ve not yet left my awkward stage. Maybe nobody noticed?

As funny as these embarrassing age-moments are, others really sock a punch to my heart.

I began querying and submitting proposals for my novel just after I turned 42. I’ve written nearly all my life and always wanted to pursue a career as an author, but circumstances did not allow it for many years. I’m finally at the point to take the next step with my work.

At 42, I’m the oldest in most of my writing circles—old enough to be many a young author’s mama.

“You young’uns don’t know how good you have it. Why, I remember the old days when I wrote my first book on a typewriter!” (Said in my best Granny Clampit voice.)

Sometimes I wonder if I got to the game too late. As many years as it typically takes to get published, will I be 50 before my career begins? That sinister little voice likes to bully me with, “You should have started this ten years ago.”

No matter what our goal is, this is how fear works. It digs in where we’re most vulnerable, preying on our insecurities. Though it feels powerful, what we fear is usually not grounded in what is real.

The words, “fear not,” are found in Scripture 365 times—that’s a reminder for every day of the year. God is amazing like that. When I’m besieged by fear of any kind, it helps to go to His Word.

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. – Isaiah 41:13

 For God gave us not a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. – 2 Timothy 1:7

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6

At the risk of taking these verses out of context, I find tremendous comfort and calm for my soul when I see how God encouraged the hearts of His people through the centuries. He wants the same peace and trust for us. Fear is human, but God is a God of empowerment.

Now, am I saying that we can have anything we dream of if we work hard and don’t let fear hold us back? No. I am saying, we cannot allow fear to hold us back from pursuing a goal that we have prayed over and given over to God. The ultimate outcome is His, but if we never try, we will never know what He might have done with us.

May you experience the peace of God’s presence as you trust in His promises.

Have you experienced fear holding you back from pursuing a goal? What helped you overcome it?

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