Today is January 7th.
Much has been written and said about New Year’s resolutions that even the very
topic seems cliché. Still, the New Year provides a wonderful opportunity – a
clean slate, if you will – for us to make the intentional choice to do things
differently and make this our best year yet.
Honestly, I quit making New
Year’s resolutions several years ago. More accurately, I made four resolutions
that I knew had to be more than something I did at the start of a new year…they
had to become part of what I did at the start of each and every new day. These
were my four:
- Daily Bible reading apart from sermon preparation;
- Get in control of my health;
- Get in control of my schedule;
- Make sure my family knows they are a priority.
It did not take long for me to
realize that these were not just New
Year’s resolutions, but new day
resolutions that require my regular focus and attention.
When I made those resolutions a
couple years back, it dawned on me that what I wanted to change was innate behavior.
This is probably true for the vast majority of people who make New Year’s
resolutions. You likely have a temperament trait or two that you do not like and
choose to use the clean slate of the New Year to change them. What happens more
often than not, though, is a few days into the New Year, we lose our will power
and revert to comfortable behavior patterns. So now that we are one week in to
the New Year, how are you doing with your resolutions?
As the calendar changed to 2015 –
perhaps like you – I reflected upon my resolutions, realizing that to make real
lasting change, I still have to work
and focus on these each and every day. Without daily attention, I slip back
into old worn out ways of thinking and behaving that caused me to want to make
changes in the first place. There are a few things I definitely want to
accomplish at the start of this New
Year. So to help me with my goals for 2015, I am using these five tips for goal
setting that I want to share with you. May these tips help you achieve positive
and lasting change, not just for this new
year, but for each and every new day:
- Set a specific goal – know what you want to achieve as opposed to some nebulous thought
- Make it reasonable – know what you can do, but also be mindful of your limits
- Set a timeframe in which to achieve your goal – know when you want to achieve your goal; this will help you in times of weakness when you might want to stray. This can also help you create margin for times when you know you will need to deviate from your plan.
- Make it measurable so you know when you’ve reached it, along with some touch points along the way to help keep you motivated.
- Be accountable to others who can help keep you on track, or get you back on track before you get too far off course.
I hope that these tips might be
helpful for you to set and achieve your goals for 2015. Whether they are
changing unhealthy patterns, or maintaining healthy ones, these tips can help
you achieve great things not just in this new
year, but in each and every new day!
Happy New Year,
Pastor Mark
Not
that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians
3:12-14, NIV)
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