New Years Resolutions

First of all let me begin by saying Happy New Year! This is always an exciting time for many people. For many, it's an opportunity to take stock of their career, their relationships, and see if they're any closer to their ultimate goal (whatever that is). For some, it's simply an opportunity to get dressed up and go out with friends to celebrate and end and a beginning. Whatever the reason, New Years is an exciting time.

Most people at this time of year make a little something called resolutions. Resolution is a funny word. The root of the word is resolve. As in a couple coming to me saying they want to resolve their problems with each other. Most people at New Years use resolutions more like goals, goals that they want to set or re-commit to doing if they weren't so successful doing it last year. Goals are well and fine and I think everyone should have them. I wonder how it would be different, though, if people actually decided to set resolutions and try to attain them? In other words, I wonder how it would be different if people would actually look over their life at this time of year, find problems that they are having in certain areas of their life and make a plan to rectify it. Let's face it, we all have a relative or college roommate who said something bad at our wedding who we haven't spoken to since. Or we all have a strained relationship with a co-worker who we have decided we don't want to try to be friends with. What's the harm in reaching out to this person? What's the harm in trying to fix any area of your life that's out of harmony with who you really want to be?

So my challenge to you this New Years is not to just set a goal to lose weight (again) or to work towards a promotion in your job. My challenge to you is to look over your whole life - spiritually, physically, mentally, relationally - and find an area that needs some resolving. Then when you have found that area identify how to resolve that difficulty that you're having in that area. Then you can set practical and attainable New Years goals towards your resolution. It's difficult to look over your life in such an honest, transparent way and to some it may taste like a bitte pill. But trust me, the advantages outweight the cons every time. And in the words of @jtMBA: Often when we look back over a struggling time, we realize that that struggle was the very thing keeping us from our goals.