We are just one measly week into the New Year and, it has been reported, one-third of adults who made resolutions have already dropped them. Another third will abandon them by the end of January. The remaining third? Well, my guess is that they didn’t even bother making a list.
We are a strange lot. When it comes down to it, we will bore through concrete block to do what we REALLY want to do. NOTHING can stand in our way, even the loftiest of goals. New Year resolutions are admirable, but, more often than not, they are inconveniences that are soon stored away in the attic with the Christmas decorations to pull out again next year.
(I am chuckling to myself that I am EVEN writing a blog about resolutions. Actually, my husband will be doing the most chuckling of all, he who was setting goals and the steps to achieve them while he was still in diapers.)
But we can all take heart in this: In the dictionary, the very first definition of “resolution” is not an act of determination, but “the act of reducing something to a simpler form, such as a chemical compound.” So, when I make a resolution, instead of building up a seemingly impossible wall to scale, I really should be breaking down the problem into tiny bites instead of annual ones – what can I do today? What can I do this afternoon? What can I do in the next 15 minutes before the baby gets up? What can I do RIGHT now? Those are the resolutions that stick. When I set about to run the marathon, 26.2 miles didn’t just happen. I followed a plan that reduced the enormity of the task into one run at a time.
So whether your goal is the proverbial quest to lose weight THIS year, not lose your temper, call your mom weekly, or in my case, write something every day (already broken!), think about the advertisement that I have stuffed in the front of my journal: “There are those who do. And those who wouldacouldashoulda.”
This year, make it happen. One teeny bite, word, or step at a time.
“…make Your way straight before me.”
Psalm 5.8
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