My 10 Non-New Year's Resolutions - Practical Stewardship

I cringe a tad at the thought of making New Year’s Resolutions. Why? Because I don’t want to set myself up for failure. Plain and simple. How many of you have kept all of your new year’s goals through the years?? Thought so. So for the last few years I really haven’t written anything down. If I want to start something and change something about myself, I don’t need a date to make any changes. I start right away.

But there is something clarifying about writing down goals. It reminds us. It gives a focus. It helps bring us back on track when we start wavering. So a few days before the new year started, I wrote my current goals down. Then the next day I read a post from Barb at Second Chance to Dream where she talks about the importance of writing down goals, and it confirmed why it’s a great idea for everyone to write down their goals. You should check out her post if you get a chance.

So because it is the beginning of the new year, I thought I’d share the goals I have been currently working on and am pursuing.

My 10 non-New Year’s Resolutions:

Be more thankful inwardly and outwardly. My husband and family will be more thankful and happier if I am, too. Colossians 3:15
Work on being less selfish-especially with my time and being on time. If I am late, I am often putting myself ahead of others. It’s not always like that. Life happens, I know, but I still need to work to be on time.
Carry with me a positive attitude. I need to stop looking at life through a negative lens. I continually need to refocus.
Be more patient and kind-kinda sounds like how love should always be, anyway, huh? 1 Cor. 13:4
Prioritize, slow down, and breathe deeper.
Get stronger with kettle bells and running faster (I don’t know my pace now, but it’s probably slower than 10 minute miles-our treadmill numbers are broken).
Continue on the path toward good nutrition and maintaining weight.
Go to sleep around 11:15 most nights, so I can wake up and get out of bed earlier.
Keep consistently reading my Bible and praying.
Continue on the path to victory with overcoming anxiety during all of the little battles that arise while “letting go” of the control I don’t even have but I somehow think I have. Think on what’s true. Think on what’s true. Think on what’s true. Philippians 4:8.

Ouch! Some of these are really hard goals. Be patient? Thankful? Not anxious? Some of these goals really require getting outside myself and relying on the Lord even more. They require me to continually take my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:5 That’s so hard because I can be fine one moment and thinking on the right things, and then FLIP! The mind does a u-turn and runs the other way. Then I gotta go grab the wrong thought, squash it, and think on the truth again. I have been wanting to write more about my struggles with anxiety for a year and half. But I have to sit down and deal with it. Maybe this will be the year! I digress.

I don’t have many measurable goals like lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks or anything like that. The character building goals are sure hard to measure. Even though I can’t measure some of these goals, “I have been 14% more kind than I was yesterday”, or “I am 50% more selfless today”, when I read through my list, I am reminded of the victories I have had, and the failures from which I am learning to become a better person. There is so much to fix, but on the graph of life I am aiming for upward and to the right. Whatever I am today, I want to be better than I was yesterday.

Do you have any life goals? New year’s resolutions? Do you make resolutions or think they are for the birds? Wishing you all God’s many blessings in the new year!

Read here for some tips on getting and staying healthy and trim in the new year, and maintaining your fitness.