Making Resolutions for the New Year

Ringing in the New Year often marks a time for making resolutions. Common New Year’s resolutions include losing weight, saving money, studying more, finding a better job, improving a relationship, being kinder or more generous, drinking less, and so on.

Well-Intentioned Resolutions

Usually these well-intentioned resolutions are short-lived. Aside from being vague and difficult to determine success, I think the problem is we set ourselves up for failure.

Let’s assume I step on the scale in September and realize I need to lose weight.

But I’ll wait and make a New Year’s resolution to drop the extra pounds. Since this idea lives in the future, I don’t need to worry about it now; I can continue eating as I always have.

In four months I’ll focus on weight loss, but for now, don’t worry.

This gives me four months to further instill my bad habits. Additionally, knowing that in the future I’ll need to be more careful with what I eat, emboldens me to eat poorly now, while I still have the chance.

This only makes the problem worse, resulting in more weight to lose later.

Don’t Put Off the Changes You Need to Make

A much better approach is to begin losing weight right away and not delay.

Instead of waiting until January first to change a habit, introduce a new one, or remove a bad one, why not make changes as soon as the opportunity arises?

Why accumulate a list of resolutions for the start of a new year? Instead, make incremental improvements throughout the year.

If you made a New Year’s resolution, I wish you success. And if you forgot, don’t wait until next year. Begin making changes right away. Any day is a great day to start improving your life.

Happy New Year!

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

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