Resolutions and Habits
Do you have an elevator speech for the most common question asked on Jan 1st, “What are your new year’s resolutions?” If you get tired of the question, consider that the anything that has been around for more than 2000 years may never go away.
It’s never been a struggle for me to come up with resolutions. The more ubiquitous goals like losing weight, reading more, praying more and improving time management are easy to share, albeit ordinary. Others don’t make the final cut because they are either too personal, too difficult or poorly defined. I have learned that objectives or goals need to be SMART - specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. In addition to SMART goals, choosing the right number is just as important for me. To avoid any possible diagnosis of renaissance man syndrome in 2009, my top level list is short.
- Skill - learn guitar beyond the few chords I keep relearning every few months. It may mean taking some lessons.
- Behavior - more regular workout, beyond weekends. I receive a lot of motivation from my wife. A second behavior is to break the habit of vending machines and soda. It’s costly in health and dollars.
- Heart - more compassion and deeper love toward my children, my wife and those around me.
- Mind -be a better conversationalist
- Soul - more consistent prayer and Bible reading
Perhaps I can extend I Thessalonians 5:11 to how we think about our New Year’s resolutions, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”