I don’t know what your thoughts are about celebrating a New Year. Some look at it as an opportunity to put the old year to rest and to start out NEW! It seems that everyone at one time or another has made “New Year’s Resolutions,” and there’s nothing wrong with making resolutions. A resolution is just a GOAL and GOALS are good.
The top 10 New Year’s Resolutions last year were:
1. Lose Weight
2. Getting Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5 Staying Fit and Healthy
6 Learn Something Exciting
7 Quit Smoking
8 Help Others in Their Dreams
9 Fall in Love
10 Spend More Time with Family
The problem a lot of people have with making such goals is that they are either (1) Too Vague or (2) Not Measurable. For example, let’s say your goal is to LOSE WEIGHT. Well, what exactly does that mean? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What does it taste like? The more VIVID your goal is, the more likely you are to attain it. You want a goal that inspires you and motivates you. A goal also ought to be MEASURABLE otherwise how will you know when you attain it. I gained 10 pounds over the holiday so my goal is to lose 10 pounds by June which ought to be easy. That’s just 2 pounds a month!
… by the way, did you notice anything missing in those top 10 goals? There was not even a hint of any spiritual goals. What are your spiritual goals for the New Year? Remember they need to be VIVID and MEASURABLE. Some of you might want to make a commitment to read through the entire Bible in a year. It takes about 70 hours to read through the Bible at pulpit reading speed. That’s just 19 minutes a day! Some of you might want to make a goal to memorize Scripture. You say, “That’s too hard!” You don’t have to make it hard. It can be as hard or easy as you want. How about ONE Scripture a month? That’s doable and measurable. How about a goal to set aside a specific amount of time to pray. Again, it doesn’t have to be hard. Make it fun. How about a goal of waking up 10 minutes earlier and giving those 10 minutes completely to God? Who knows? Maybe after a month of doing that you might want to up the time to 20 minutes a day?
“Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” – Proverbs 21:5
