My Kingdom

 A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness.

It is an expression of humility.

It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as 
prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being.
- James E. Faust

This is my 2015 blog, sort of.

2014 was an eye opening experience for me. It definitely whooped me something good and took me down to the lowest points of my life. But I didn't let it keep me there, I dug my feet in and I was determined to get myself out of that hole and make some significant changes. I'm a better person than what I'm currently putting out into the world, therefore, if you know better, then you must do better. That's how I look at things, and how it's supposed to be.

When you're transitioning into that next level of life that people eventually want, you have to be prepared for it. A lot of people wake up wanting to have a family, wanting to be married to someone they love deeply and they want to be those things comfortable like. Now it's all cool and dandy if those things happen to you when you least expect it, but for me it's all about preparation, that's what my life entails. I want to at least start preparing for that day to come, I mean if it happens now then cool, but preparing is what I want to do the most.

That's why the name of this blog is called My Kingdom; it's the start of the life that I want to live for the rest of my days. I originally was going to call this post 2015: Restoration, but I figured to myself, why am I restoring and not creating something better? IF I know where I want to be for the rest of my life, why not start working towards that. A lot of people are walking around waiting for something good to happen in that regards instead of preparing for it. I think with something that important on the horizon, you have to have some sense of stability for when it comes along. That's why I have a plan for different aspects of my life this year, because after going through 2014, I know where I don't want to be at the very least.

Health

As far as health goes, I want to be more physical. I want to do things like hiking, biking, participating in runs (God willing if my back and knees can hold up), getting out there and at least playing some basketball again, just overall being active again. With being active and changing my diet already, you just build more energy for throughout your day. I got up and did my first walk, because running wasn't even a question, and I had so much energy for the rest of the day to do stuff. I've already cut out the junk food for the most part, given up fast food, the sodas, the pork, the red meat, and even the drinking is completely done until homecoming of next year. I've let my physical alignments get the best of me for long enough and it's time to take back control of my body. If you're feeling unhappy with something physical, then get up and change it, it's not that hard to do, it's just determination and motivation that is holding you back, I assure you this much, you can do it if you believe in yourself enough.

Volunteering

Being more social is another thing that I have planned for the New Year. I know people who know me in real life are looking at this like, "how can Devon say be more social? He knows just about everyone and their mama". Well I assure you that I don't know everyone and their mother, but I do know that I want to meet more people, so in order to do that I'm going to volunteer more and be more active in programs at the gym and other various things. You don't always have to sit around and do nothing on your weekends off. There are many things you can do that require just a couple hours of your time, the reward for that within itself is high. I was talking over with one of my good friends that volunteer with the veterans, the homeless and the boys and girls club organizations and he said it doesn't take up too much of his time and he meets a lot of great human beings, the little rewards in that make things worth it in the grand scheme of things. If you have some time to give back, do it for the people that really need the help and attention, you never know what life you can save.

Traveling

There are many, many places that I want to go, and there are tons of places that I have been invited to. Now is as good as time to get up and go to these places, I've spent my life making friendships with people that are doing great things and they invite me to come visit all of the time, so there's no reason for me to continue putting it off. I know traveling isn't cheap and it takes a lot of time being put in at work and making sure your finances are in order, but I feel as if that's a small price to pay to experience the wonders of the world. I know I'm not going to go see a million things this year, but with careful planning and following a trip schedule I threw together for the more extravagant trips, I have faith that I'll be able to knock a couple out this year. I know my cousin has been trying to get me to take this one trip in particular forever, so I have to start there with her lol. Plus this allows me to open up some different avenues here on the blog for my travel section I'm developing; I'm very excited about that.

Blog Stuff
 

Man oh man is there about to be a whirlwind of content coming your way this year. 2015 is the tenth year that I've been blogging, as you can see from the banner, so I've decided to take the chains off myself and go all out and do some new stuff this year. I've already completed three months of work and enlisted some very talented people who want to break their way into blogging. They are good friends of mine so I'm excited to include them in on my most precious project. I'll keep the same posting schedule, with post going up every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But the big change that's coming is the first week of every month there will be a blog posted on every single day. It's going to be the same format and you should keep your eye out for that. My new goal for this year is get more people involved at the site, network with great bloggers and build my audience up. I'm really excited about all of the things that I have planned with the blog, I'm not going to give up specifics, I'd rather surprise you guys with the new stuff that I have in the shoot. If you're interested in being a part of this big year of my blog, just leave a comment or hit me up through the contact page.

Personal happiness

Did you notice how I didn't say anything about work or career goals? I've been making ground on that for the last two months, and my career goals are becoming clearer and better in that aspect. I don't really talk about that kind of stuff with anyone, I just kind of do and network with the people that I need to, but for the most part, that part of my life is starting to come together. So the most important thing with me is building up personal relationships with people that I care about the most. 2014 those relationships have become kind of strained due to stress that a lot of us were feeling, but the latter part of the year a lot of us have been getting better and making major progressions and we're holding each other up. We all understand that we have problems in the world and so we don't hold that against one another, with that being said, getting back to that Devon that all of my friends and family recognize is the most important thing for me to do this year. I was tripping for the most part and I don't want to do that again this year.

Pretty much for the year I'm going to go back to doing what I want to do, that was the big thing that I changed. I slowed down my way of living for other people so they could catch up when in reality they should've been trying to catch up to me and live on the level that I was on. I want people to be happy and all, but I'm not going to slow down my boat so other people can get on and not do anything. I have all intentions of stepping up to the plate and creating that level of life that I want to live and either people are going to help me, climb on board and go with me or they're simply just going to move out of my way and let me do my thing. There's no time to slow down in 2015, there are blessings to receive and memories to be made, so if you're not about that life, then I suggest you either get with the program or get left, because there are a lot of motivated people going for their happiness, and I am surely one of them.

What are your plans for 2015? What are hoping to accomplish with your new year? Leave a comment below.

Well guys, it's the new year, let's make it something that we want.