New Year…New Me, Right??

This is the question everyone asks themselves on January 1st each year.  Some people make changes in their personal lives, in their relationships, or in their careers.  Many set new fitness goals. There’s new diets, new gym memberships, and new priorities.  They all seem to creep up on us and we feel like we have to follow these expectations each year.  Otherwise, we are behind and we aren’t growing.  What if we did this each week, each month, or each quarter?  Would we actually stick to something? Would we be more intentional?

These are the questions I’m asking myself as I write this!  New Year’s resolutions seem practically useless when we phrase it that way.  We head into the new year with all the right intentions and actually set some pretty good goals, but after 2 weeks to a month, we lose motivation and fall right back into our old routines and habits.  How do we stop this?  How do we keep pushing and commit to real growth?  Our “resolution” should be commitment however you want to look at it!!  Hopefully, once we “commit to commitment,” we can make more happen.

Let’s start with some basic goals that everyone can benefit from. It’s up to you to commit to them and implement them in your lives.

1 - Be more intentional with your words and with your time! When you say something, mean it. Use your time wisely and find ways to be more productive.

2 - Focus on what is important! We all get caught up chasing things that are not of substance or value. We need to ask ourselves the question “What is important in this moment?” This is in an effort not to get swept away in uncessesary worries and focus on what truly matters to us, to our spouses, or to our children.

3 - Learn to distinguish needs from wants! This could be financially or more personal. It’s so easy to turn a want into a need in our minds, but this can send us into a talespin of unnecessary decisions. This causes more daily stress than you realize.

Let’s use these goals for the next 2 weeks to a month and see what changes for you in your life. Document your progress. I don’t want to dissuade you from setting goals for the new year, but why should we wait for the new year to start making changes? Don’t lose track of the now while you are waiting for the future. After all, life is tough and things will always come along to throw us off of our course. Every day is an opportunity to do things a little differently.