New Year's Resolutions

I resolve not to make a new year’s resolution!  That used to be my list!  Of course, as John Mark once pointed out to me that as soon as I resolved to not make a resolution, I already failed because I made one. 

So, this year I actually came up with a resolution: I will actually exercise, even though it goes against my philosophy of “No pain, no pain!”  I am going to limit my exercise to sit ups.  I might do more than that, but that is all I am going to “resolve.” 

Why am I limiting myself to only one resolution?  Probably to limit the number of failures within the month of January.  I call this one, the better safe than sorry approach.

There are many different ways to go about this resolution making process.  Some people actually list out a good number of resolutions in hopes that they will be able to keep just one of them.  I call this the shot gun approach.  Depending on how you look at the whole thing (how many I kept vs how many I didn’t) will determine if this perspective is the best approach for you.

Regardless whether you take the safe approach or the shotgun approach there are a few things you can do to increase your odds of successfully keeping your new year’s resolution for the upcoming year.

1. Make it a resolution you want to keep.  As crazy as it sounds, some people will follow along with other people’s new year’s resolution.  These seldom work out because if it’s not important to you, you probably aren’t going to remember to work on it.
2. Make it an achievable goal.  Too often we set our goals so far ahead that we lose hope on our way to achieve them.  There is nothing wrong with setting lofty goals, but don’t set it so high that you lose hope and give up.
3. Develop a plan.  Even an achievable goal can seem impossible to reach without a plan.  Make them specific actions that you are going to do and stick to them.  Again, make sure that these action items are reasonable achievable
4. Hang around or read about others that are doing the same thing.  The Bible refers to this as being equally yoked.  If you can’t find people doing the same thing as you, at least look for blogs and articles on the internet for encouragement.
5. Accept that change will be required.  You can have a goal and a plan and still wind up failing to achieve your goal because you were not willing to embrace change.  Familiarity is often the enemy of achieving success.  You can’t stay where you are and expect to wind up some place different!
6. Accountability.  This one is a biggie!  To be successful you must realize that you will be tempted to go back to old behavior patterns, and give trusted people around you the right to confront you when you do.  You will also need to commit to listen to them and submit to their correction even when your feelings are screaming for you to go back to the old ways!

For those of us who would like to achieve something new or different in the upcoming year, we need to realize that it will take a certain level of effort!  If you aren’t serious enough to take these steps, or other steps like these, then don’t be surprised if you are among the majority of new year’s resolution makers in June wondering what went wrong.

Whether you make a new year’s resolution or not, I hope you have a safe new year’s eve and a wonderful new year!

Bah Humbug To Scrooge

I can’t believe that Christmas is just a few days away!  It just doesn’t seem like we’ve been listening to Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations in stores for three months yet.   

It feels just like yesterday that I was standing in Wal-Mart near the Xbox game display on the eve of Black Friday when suddenly someone said, “It’s ten o’clock!” and they all hit the display so hard that within two minutes all the games were gone and the display was in a million pieces on the ground. It was like watching piranha attacking a piece of meat.

I would like to note here that even though I walked away from that display with the game that I had hoped to walk away with that I never pushed anyone or even touched the display.  As people were grabbing games, the one I wanted flew behind three people and feel to the ground at my feet where I was able to simply bend down, pick it up and walk away; much to the amazement of many other disappointed shoppers.  (True story!)

That coupled with the fact that I showed up at 9:45 pm and was packing up the van with almost everything on my list at 10:30 pm is going into a book I will write sometime in the future about the daily proof that there really is a God!

For those of you who have read my columns over the years you may recall that I have a bit of an “inner Scrooge.”  I love what Christmas is supposed to be about, but for many reasons I don’t like what it has turned into.  But this year is different.

This year has been great!  I have been the one turning on the Christmas music, putting out the Christmas lights and even doing the black Friday shopping when Alisa wound up sick. 

Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t all been perfect.  My inner Scrooge did make an appearance last weekend when I drove to Khols only to discover that the item that my wife bought for me to give her (which she returned to the store when she saw my face that said, “Really?  You are going to buy your own gifts this year?”  and told me two days later that she returned it and that I would need to go to the store myself to buy)  was now out of stock.

That was not a good day.  But I have since apologized for my behavior and all has been forgiven.  I am also learning to control my facial expressions in order to avoid such shopping madness in the future!  So, we won’t talk about that.

So, what has been the difference this year?  I wish I could say it was all me.  That I made this internal choice that this Christmas would be awesome and I made it so, but sadly that is not the case.  To be honest, it actually surprised me how none of the commercialization bothered me this year. 

I think I just got to the point that I decided to be a part of the solution instead of hating the problem.  It’s a whole lot more fun to look at everyone you talk to and say, “Merry Christmas!” (Especially if they just said, “Happy Holidays” to me!)  It’s exciting to focus on what can be instead of focusing on what used to be.  It fills me with hope, instead of sadness.

It’s a battle for your mind.  Not just during the Christmas season, but every day.  The Bible tells us to “renew our minds,” to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” and to “dwell on what is good.”  You don’t ignore problems and pretend they don’t exist; however, you don’t have to dwell on them either.

So, when I am standing outside in the rain waiting to see Santa with my wife and children (for that is the forecast for the only time we can get our schedules synchronized) I am going to focus my thoughts on the excitement from Mitch and Jackson.  I am also going to hold on to the moment, reminding myself that there aren’t too many of these left.

This Christmas I pray that as you remember the past you focus on the good memories and choose to forgive any bad ones that come up.  I hope you stay focused at what is good, never forgetting that we are celebrating the birth of our precious Savior and Lord- Jesus Christ!  While you are at it, pray that for me too! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!