Given last week my daughter’s final classes wrapped up and our homeschooling season came to a close, the topic of finishing and finishing well came up. There is a difference. Finishing can mean just checking off all the boxes and calling it good. Finishing well entails giving it 100% all the way to the end, not skimping or rushing through, but making sure you’ve done your very best in every aspect even up until the very last moment.

I explained to my daughter it’s all about where we set our bar. If we set it pretty low, then finishing is a breeze. If we reach for something higher and better, then more effort, planning, and perseverance are required to finish.

As a parent, I desire to finish well. When I send my daughter off to college in a few short years, I hope I can say with confidence that as a parent I finished well to prepare her for the next phase of her life into adulthood. Some days I’m more confident in that process than others, but regardless I’m not willing to lower the bar.

Apart from my role as a parent, I desire to finish well as a woman living out the desires and plans God has for me. I think about how our season of homeschooling has now come to an end and I look forward to what God has in store for me personally in that new free time opening up during the day. I know I can fill it with all sorts of good volunteer things, enjoyable activities, or even a part time job, but I don’t want to just fill up my days with …. stuff. I want to set the bar higher and have my life count for something bigger. When I think and pray along those lines, I get excited.

Whatever your upcoming week entails or whatever the season you are in demands, plan to finish well. You’ll feel better knowing you did your best, in spite of difficulty and obstacles, pushing through even up to the very end!

For Christmas, we bought our Labradoodle dog a special bone … a very large bone. When we put it up next to her, it measured half the length of her. We thought she’d be in doggie heaven with that gargantuan treat. However, after nearly two weeks, she barely touched it.

My daughter suggested the size was too overwhelming, so I cut it in half. Surprisingly, our dog took the half and chewed on the rawhide until she stopped to take a nap. Who would have thought too much of a good thing would be so paralyzing.

It reminds me of the saying, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” How easy it is for us to do that in life.

We take on large tasks thinking it will be fantastic, only to find that we’ve overcommitted and are now overwhelmed. Or maybe we set too many expectations for ourselves that we can never live up to.

So how can we make sure we don’t get in over our heads?

*Be honest about your limits and respect them

*Learn to say yes to the most important things and willing to say no to the rest

And  … understand that bigger isn’t always better!

What is it about a new year that prompts everyone to set new goals, commit to do better, or implement something new? There is nothing magical about January 1 as it’s just simply a marker in time to start fresh.

What if we looked at each day as a fresh start? Not just on the first of the year, but every day. How different would life be? It boils down to perspective and approach.

Often we get stuck in looking at each day as another day to live out the routine of the previous day doing the same tasks as the day before. But what if we viewed each day as a new beginning, a chance for discovering something new, and an opportunity to move closer to a goal?

Regardless if our daily tasks are the same, there are still new beginnings and opportunities waiting to be discovered every day. So give it a try. Dare to step out of the routine. Discover. Thrive!