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!