I have always struggled to say that I make New Year’s resolutions. If you are like me, when you put a lofty expectation in place and shortly in the year you have already failed, it only leads to disappointment. That’s not a very encouraging system to me.
On the other hand, as much as resolutions can wear us down, I believe we should always try to do something better in the new year than in previous years. With that in mind, I need to spend time reviewing, thinking, and planning before or as the new year begins. (My friend Michael Hyatt has a great post on reviewing the year HERE.)
I think it is more than just terminology to say that I believe in setting goals and objectives at the beginning of every New Year. Resolutions are too binding for me, but goals and objectives tend to focus my attention, keep me from following tangents, and hopefully stretch me.
My goals for the New Year are:
Communication – I want to improve it with my staff, family and friends.
Leadership development – As a four year old church, we have a young, new staff. I see a large part of my job as helping them achieve their goals and objectives. In addition, I want to continue to help young leaders in our church and outside develop and grow.
Personal disciplines – The more disciplined I am, the more I can achieve. I am dreaming about two marathons this year. Not sure if that will happen yet, but the stretch will be good for me. When I am disciplined personally I find I am a better servant for God’s glory.
Now my objectives are to create plans and systems to meet these goals. I have been working on this for weeks and I am in the process now of implementing.
Do you make resolutions? If not, what is your method to try to improve each year?
Let me encourage you to spend a couple hours over the next few days dreaming some new goals and objectives for the coming year that can help make you more productive, more successful, and ultimately more satisfied with the progress of your life.
Normally I hate resolutions, except 2010 seems to be different. I've had an opportunity to lead womens Bible study, grow in faith and trust God with my heart, soul and mind. With this growth, I looked at scripture and Jesus' relationship with 12 friends and decided to find 12 new friends in 2010. My former friends were not faith or disassociated with me the more I associated with Jesus. Now I seek a relationship with Godly women friends, like the 12 friends of Jesus. Each month I'm cultivating a new friendship of Christian fellowship-much more exciting that losing weight for a new year's resolution!
Christine, I love it. This is a great plan and you will see huge rewards at the end of the year. Go for it!
Normally I hate resolutions, except 2010 seems to be different. I've had an opportunity to lead womens Bible study, grow in faith and trust God with my heart, soul and mind. With this growth, I looked at scripture and Jesus' relationship with 12 friends and decided to find 12 new friends in 2010. My former friends were not faith or disassociated with me the more I associated with Jesus. Now I seek a relationship with Godly women friends, like the 12 friends of Jesus. Each month I'm cultivating a new friendship of Christian fellowship-much more exciting that losing weight for a new year's resolution!
Great post Ron, just wrote one similar to this myself. Yeah, I've never been great with the pressure of making "resolutions", but as you said, setting goals and objectives keeps me grounded and allows me to stay focused. I've also started something different this year and began making changes before the new year. I don't know what it is about the 1st of January, but it's always been a mental block for me. Removing that altogether and beginning change before the new year has helped me tremendously as well.
Good luck in your marathons! Running was one of those things I started back in October and I'm at the small fry stage, but just registered for my first 5K race last night, something I never thought I'd do. Should be interesting 😉
Thanks Nathan. Great observation on the Jan 1st block. I seem to have that too. Hope you do well in the running world. It keeps me motivated!