Twenty Twenty WON: Out with the old, but in with what?

"Out with the old!" Cliche, though it is, it seems to concisely sum up the sentiments abounding at the start of a new year. It's especially poignant now, as many have expressed that 2020 couldn't have ended soon enough. But that saying doesn't end there. "In with the new" usually follows, so this begs the question: "Now what?"

"I can't wait!" "I made it!" " I'm never looking back!" These were exclamations heard as the clock ticked from 11:59 to midnight, announcing the end of 2020. People were genuinely relieved.

There's another saying I've heard in the church many times: "God always brings you out to bring you in." In other words, God doesn't just deliver out of; He delivers into. We come out to go in -- to something better.

We all know the turn of the calendar and click of the clock doesn't necessarily mean everything instantly changes, but there is something about a new year that brings new hope. Hope is more than half the battle. But as leadership expert John Maxwell says, "Hope is not a strategy." While we have nothing without it, we still have to do something with it.

A friend on New Year's Day referred to this year as "Twenty Twenty WON." I love it! So I've been using that since. See the hope in that? I see it: victory, prosperity, purpose, on and on. Not hope in a year, but hope in a God who has made available "every good and perfect gift" to all who trust Him.

My prayer is that you, too, will have that hope and then devise a strategy for your new season. I suggest:

• Goals: Make them. I didn't say "dreams." We need goals to accomplish our dreams. They should be what we really feel to commit to, not what others say we should want. Everyone has an opinion of what our focus should be going into a new year. We need to evaluate ourselves, however, and create goals with timetables for what we truly want to achieve and plan to work toward. Someone else's idea of what we ought to desire just doesn't work; it won't sustain us.
• Growth: Stagnation stinks. Reject it. Be a lifelong learner. Experiment. This looks different for different people. For some, it's taking a class. For others, it's reading a book. It may be traveling. Whatever it is, don't settle in. As I often say, "No matter your age, no matter your stage," there's always more.
• Give: Find a place to invest -- your time, your talents, your effort, your finances. We cannot give to everything and everyone, but give where it makes sense. Sow into good ground that will yield a harvest. "I have nothing left to give!" Have you ever said that? We've all felt like that at some point, but it's usually not true. For you, it may be mentoring someone. For someone else, it may be volunteering. The bottom line is we have been blessed with something, no matter how small we think it is, that can be a blessing to someone else. That blessing is multiplied when we give.
• Grace: Extend it. Don't carry baggage into a new season. It'll slow down your journey. In my book "Push Your Way to Purpose," one of the most powerful chapters is called "Use the F-word." Don't get nervous; it's not what you think! The F-word is "forgive." So forgive -- and do it quickly. Others need grace, and you have it to extend. It's important to receive grace also. We aren't perfect. We've messed up. We've hurt people. This all means we need grace, too. So take it. We do this by forgiving ourselves. Some of us have the hardest time with that. We can be our own worst enemy. And as I write in my book, "If people won't forgive themselves, you know they won't forgive you." It becomes a cycle of withholding grace so desperately needed. Break it. Let's extend grace to others and to ourselves.

It's a new season, and 2020 is behind us, but we should be intentional about the new year. I sure would love to see us reach the end of this year not gasping for air, lamenting its outcomes or just relieved to have made it, but reflecting on a year that saw more victories than defeats, more results than remorse, and more freedom than fear. I want a year that has us rejoicing and shouting on Dec. 31, "Yes, Twenty Twenty WON!"

Adrienne Ross is owner of Adrienne Ross Communications and a former Southeast Missourian editorial board member.