Welcome to the Determined to Dance podcast with your host, Jennifer Hallmark. Today’s episode, Still Determined to Dance, is an impromptu episode on persevering when life gets weird.

Are you ready? The world would have us march to its chaotic beat but God invites us to dance in His will and His way. Let’s take a moment to be energized, refreshed, and motivated to face the day, one spin and twirl at a time.

Show notes: Still Determined to Dance

Today’s episode is supposed to be about dancing during ordinary times. I had a plan about talking about going on with God and dancing with God when days are just day in and day out ordinary everyday stuff that doesn’t seem to be getting us closer to goals or maybe doesn’t help us in reaching our goals and the success that maybe we think we need.

But life has a way of cutting things off, mainly my internet’s been down for several days and I finally have it back today, on the day I normally load my podcast. So, I thought I’d just take some time and talk to you a bit.

Talk about dancing when things are not quite what you want them to be. Maybe it is about being ordinary because it seems like, over the last couple of years, life has been ordinary but in a different way than what we want it to be.

We still have to stay determined to dance regardless. I think the thing on my mind the most right now is reevaluation. I read this verse recently in Colossians 3:23 of whatever you do, do from the heart. I realize lately that my heart has been kinda tired. I’ve called it post-covid burnout. I’ve held so strong and kept moving and kept toward my goals and kept going in the direction I needed to go and that God was leading over the last eighteen months. It’s finally catching up with me.

I think I’ve mentioned this before and I don’t mean to whine about it (sorry about that) I’ve reached a place where I’m going to have to stop and reevaluate where I am and what I’m doing and all the things in my life. What is still needful? What is not needful? I believe that’s something we need to do, probably twice a year. And I normally do that but over the last couple of years, I haven't done it as I should have. It's going to help me; I think it could help you too.

Maybe you're at the place that I'm at, and you need to reevaluate where you are and what's going on. I was listening to an episode of Novel Marketing, one of my favorite podcasts for writers. Thomas Umstattd Jr. talked about reaching a place where basically he said he couldn’t even get out of bed and he realized he was way overcommitted. He had kept adding things but hadn't done any subtraction in the process.

I tend to be that way; the type of person that thinks I can do it all and feels like I could do it all. Suddenly, I'm so overloaded and I realize, oh, well maybe I can't do it all. Some of you might understand where I'm coming from. So, I'm going to take the next few weeks and I'm going to really evaluate where I am. I’m going to look at everything I do in my writing life, my podcasting life, my blogging, my physical health, my mental health, my spiritual health, of course, and what I do at church, what I do for my family.

I think I just need to do a little pruning. Our guest speaker at church last Sunday talked about pruning. And I thought that's where I'm at. I need to do some pruning. There are some things that just need to go. That's the only way I can put it. There are some things that need to go. I've known it for a while, and the rest of the year is going to be low-key for me. I'm waiting to hear from several publishers that have different versions of my book; have actually two books.

And the waiting game has been hard. It's been hard on my heart. It's difficult when you wonder, do people like what you wrote? Do people want what you wrote? Or do you need to reevaluate your writing? Do you need to take what you've done and maybe make it better? Do you need to put it aside?