A New Year

There are two times of the year that I like best – the first of each year and the beginning of school each fall. Even though they are just dates on a calendar, there is just something about a new beginning that appeals to each of us.
 
With God, every day is a new beginning for each of us. However, we don’t always recognize that as a truth. It seems easier to recognize at the beginning of a new calendar year and at the beginning of a new school year.
 
Some would say that we should not make New Year’s Resolutions because we not going to keep them anyway. Obviously, advertisers believe we should because the airways are full of fitness advertising in early January. If your health club or gym is full now, just wait a few weeks and all will be back to normal.
 
I’m not for making resolutions just for the sake of doing so. However, I do believe we need to make goals at any time during the year that will lead us to a needed result at a later time. For example, don’t just try to lose weight because everybody is doing it. If you do, you will fail quickly. You have to have a good reason with a reasonable time frame to be successful.
 
If you find that you do need to make resolutions toward specific goals, here are some ideas to make you more successful: 

• Write down the final goal and keep it in front of you.
• Break the goal down into “bite-sized” chunks (perhaps weekly or monthly but not weekly or daily).
• Track your progress every day (on paper or on an app).
• Assign yourself to a good friend to help you keep on track.
• Remember to set new “resolutions” later in the year as new goals are needed for new opportunities.