How many of you have created New Year’s resolutions in the past? What are some of them? How has that gone?
The definition of a resolution is a “firm decision to do or not to do something.” It typically stems from a need we identify to make a change in ourselves and the way we live our lives. Do you know that on average, only about 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions? 24% of those people never succeed.
What I hear most often from people who don’t make New Year’s resolutions is that they don’t work. The question I have is – which doesn’t work, the New Year’s resolutions or the person making them?
Resolutions don’t carry themselves out without real resolve in the person making them. You need to be committed to seeing them through and turn to God for help. We can’t change ourselves, but God can change us.
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” ~ Luke 18:27
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:10
The trouble with many New Year’s resolutions is that they’re often a laundry list of things we think we “should” be doing, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not really committed to them. We think we should lose weight, or get angry less. We think we need to exercise or we should be doing a better job of staying in touch with the people we care about. But thinking you should and being committed to making a change are very different things. And that laundry list of “shoulds” can become another excuse for beating ourselves up as days and weeks go by and nothing is changing. Can anyone relate?
I was introduced to “Get One Word” two years ago. It started out as a website with some helpful information about creating a way to focus on just one word that could really create change in our lives. I still set goals for the year, but I don’t do resolutions any more. I get that one word for the year that God puts on my heart and it makes a bigger difference than all of the resolutions I might feel guilted into setting.
The first year, my word was "Abide." That was a powerful one for me because I really needed to learn how to abide in Christ. It was completely abstract to me previously. When I made my focus for the year abide, I finally learned as I progressed through the year what it means to abide in Christ and how to do it. That is now a permanent part of me that is still growing, but took a huge leap in 2014.
In 2015, my word was "purpose." I finally finished reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I started a blog and I signed up to go back to college for what I now feel strongly is my life’s purpose.
This year, my word is "Strength." I know I need to lean on God for strength to do all that is in front of me as my organization grows, as I grow and as I move forward with greater commitment to my life’s purpose. I need strength to avoid distractions, to stay focused and to not give into the desires of my flesh, but rather to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.
The fact is, it’s easy to over-complicate life and get busy with too many things. One word simplifies where you will grow in the New Year and gives you a focus.