A Brand New Year... Resolution or Revolution?

A Brand New Year…Resolution or Revolution?

Hello again.  It’s good to be back! This is my first post after an extended holiday from posting my little encouragements, but I’m back and excited to get started again.  I missed all of you during the holidays and hope they were truly blessed for you.  For me, the biggest blessing of the holidays was my oldest daughter’s announcement that she is expecting twins this year!  What a great surprise, two more grandchildren due early August.

As 2006 goal lists are being lost, misplaced and forgotten (after all, it’s been 3 days!), I want to encourage you to think again before you pass by this opportunity for a new start.

Traditional rituals are common this time of year. One day passes and we are into a new year and out with the old.  Celebrations, wine tipping, annual phone calls to distant friends and family along with holiday time to think about how the New Year might look for you are great ways to spend the time.  We do all of these things, although I have given up going out in the yard at midnight armed with pot lids and pans and making racket to bring in the New Year (a nutty childhood memory).  My husband and I did stay up to ring in the year with a hug, kiss and promise to be there for each other always.  

Prayer is part of new beginnings as well, and our prayers are for grace, for world peace, for soldiers away from home, for food for the hungry and shelter for all.  Getting closer to home, we think and pray about family concerns and cares and for the health and well being of parents, siblings, children and grandchildren. We also ask for God’s guidance, love and care in our own everyday lives.  

When all of this is said and done, I like to think about the functional parts of my life.  That is, those things that require commitment and action on my part, or a significant change.  I make the usual list of resolutions…usually mentally, because they seem so similar from year to year.  I reflect on what went right and what went wrong with trying to keep myself on track in the previous year.  It’s a good process, but I think that we often miss the point.

A resolution is only as good as the plan we make to carry it through.  The plan is only as good as our daily action.  We have to effect real changes in behavior and thought patterns to make a resolution worth the effort of the list.  Most importantly, the idea is to commit for the full time it takes to carry the idea through, even if the time extends beyond this year, the next, or the next. If you want to learn a new language, it isn’t going to happen between now and 10 days from now when you wad up the paper and put it in the trash bin.  On the other hand, a resolution becomes a life changing revolution when you keep the promises you made in your heart.

Change is a joyous and life renewing process, but it is a terrible thing to set yourself up for failure, so be sure that you are putting realistic goals in motion.  If you need support, find it.  There are all kinds of resources online and in print, community groups and activities where you can get involved, tons of places that need volunteers, classes waiting for students, trails waiting to be walked. Look around in your own environment for support as well.  Your husband or wife, a sister or brother, someone from your church or your community needs a partner in supporting goals just as much as you do. I got lucky this year and my sister and my cousin are both dieting, so we are there to talk, share recipes and concerns and plan a reward for our success this year.

My list for 2006 is short. Love more, be healthier, forgive generously, exercise patience and last but most importantly building a legacy of kindness. I wish all these things and more for you.  More on the legacy idea in another post!

Have a great 2006.