You Say You Want a Resolution

Have you failed in your resolutions already? Nearly every one makes them, and nearly every one fails or forgets them. Resolution-ists fill up gyms, book clubs, and writer’s groups each January, but they (we?) never seem to make any real changes. I have given up on resolutions all together, and over the last few years I have found some great (life changing!) things that actually work.

1. Quit One Thing

Nobody likes a quitter. Sometimes, however, our lives get insane, and we have too much activity to live authentically or spend time with the people who are important (read: anyone). Pick one activity to drop from your schedule. Even quitting something GOOD can make way for time to read, pray, think, or just be. Time to read/pray/think/be sounds pretty nice, huh?

2. Finish One Thing

On the other hand, it might be time to get something done. I had a half-finished novel in a drawer for, well, ever. Finally, I decided just to finish it. After it was done, I realized I may have accidentally rewritten Mean Girls, but I will never again wonder what it takes to write a novel. It may not be great, but getting the bad novel out of the way makes room to start the next one.

3. One Word

Pick one theme for the year and keep it on your mind throughout the year. I did it last year, and really liked having a daily goal as I went about my life. Live by the ideas found here. Mandy had some great ideas about what to do with your word after you have one in mind.

4. Read the Bible in a Year

It's an interesting way to get a big-picture-view of Christianity. One of the pitfalls, I've found, is that after reading such a huge portion, studying something smaller (word, word origin, theme), often feels overwhelming at the end of the day. Still, I love reading the whole thing, and do it every other year or so. 

5. Encourage Someone Everyday

This makes encouragement practical and real. Encouragement is near and dear to my heart, and I've found that five minutes for one person every day can make a huge difference in a stranger's/friend's heart/mind/day/week/life.

6. Plan a Trip

Rather than working on yourself or aiming for personal improvement (snoozefest, amirite?), plan something fun! Spend your free time looking up fares, looking up cool hotels, working extra to save a little, and JUST. GO.

7. Write a goal and break down the steps to get there

This changes the pie-in-the-sky to something real and doable. I am a firm believer in putting goals down on paper.  The act of writing them, even if you never look at that piece of paper again, truly changes the way your mind works.

After you have figured out the most important goals in your world, start backwards and break down the steps needed to get there. There are no excuses when all you have to do is "the next thing."

8. Find and live a good story

Donald Miller has a great way to look at the new year. He wrote this a year ago, but I still have not forgotten it. 

9. Live well

Do everything for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Whether that means workouts or work days, deciding to rest well, exercise well, work well, and play well pretty much tops every resolution ever.

How do you approach the the New Year?