Hi friends

Trust you all had a great Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Dawn and I are currently on some leave and this week are heading out down the coast for a few days but I was really keen to send out this letter before getting too far into the first few weeks of 2025

I have been thinking about the resolutions so many people speak about when a new year starts. You know, the many ideas we tend to implement and things we tend to jettison as we try to change some status quo we are unhappy with.

Something came across my FB feed a couple of days ago by Lyoto Machida to do with attaining our “dreams” and it brought to mind the power of consistency.

Lyoto Machida is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and karateka. He formerly competed for the UFC where he was a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, as well as a UFC Middleweight Championship title challenger. To be honest, he was one of my favourite UFC fighters when he was still competing there, always humble and respectful

Here is what he wrote…(of course he is Brazilian so English is not his first language

“Nowadays, I see many young people and adolescents facing a great challenge: they are being trained by the new reality. The momentary reality. Plan your dreams so that they come true immediately and quickly and I realize that it does not happen that way.

The truth is consistent dreams take time, dedication and maturity. It’s not something you achieve in a week, a month, or even in a year or two.

When I was 15, I dreamt of a UFC belt. This dream only became a reality 15 years later. During that time, I wasn’t obsessing over the dream every day, but he was always there, guiding my actions. I lived every moment with joy, especially in trainings. It wasn’t just for the dream in front, but for the pleasure of doing what I loved at that moment.

Every workout, every effort, every learning was like planting and watering a seed. And the secret was to do it with joy, enthusiasm and peace. This mood sparked creativity and inspiration in me. Many of the techniques I developed have come from this balance, mixing what I learned in karate with new ideas that emerged during fighting.

This is how, every day, I was building the path to make my dream come true. I didn’t just look at the future, but I lived in the present with purpose. And 15 years later, the dream I had at 15 has become reality: I earned the UFC belt.”.

Success doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years or decades of hard work.”

So might say, well Craig I don’t like that sport and he’s talking about becoming a UFC Champion. That’s fine, it’s the concept he is talking about that I believe is really powerful for us Believers.

The idea of being consistent with what we do, staying in peace and enjoying what we do, always with keeping the future goal in mind…

Sometimes working the days, day after day, month after month, year after year always being faithful to the “dream” or call of God and staying the course!

We can have 100 New Year’s resolutions BUT without being consistent they just become fads with no purpose that fade away.

So lets make 2025 a year that we grow in and learn how to stay consistent, to chip away with what the Lord has laid on our hearts and know that one day, we will see the fruit of our labour, and become champions in what we do, maybe even sooner than we think!

Lyoto Machida

Bless you

Craig