A helpful biblical proverb to consider when thinking about New Year’s goals is:
Proverbs 21:5a: “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity.”
Yet far too often, we hear stories of people making New Year’s resolutions only to fail within a short period of time and give up entirely on their resolutions for the rest of the year.
A quick google search online reveals the following “common reasons for failure” :
–unrealistic and vague goals
-lack of planning
-all-or-nothing thinking
-habit resistance
-lack of accountability
-internal barriers
-“fresh start fallacy” – believing the new year will magically reset you
-“false hope syndrome” – overconfidence from excessive planning without follow-through
When you look at this list, do you identify with any of this?
I know I do!
In case you haven’t started writing out goals, here are some general tips to get started:
1. When you begin to think of goals for the year, prayerfully think about WHO you are and WHO you want to be. Some people like to pick a word for the year or a sentence that summarizes how they want their year to be.
2. Consider breaking up your goals into categories, like “spiritual,” “emotional,” “physical,” “intellectual,” “financial,” “marriage,” “family,” etc.
3. Going back to #2, think about writing out who you are as it relates to each of these categories or facets of your life and write a sentence that captures how you hope to show up in that specific area.
Remember: these are simply tips. If you have a system of writing out goals that works for you, stick with it! Or feel free to adapt these tips to your goals as you see fit.
I’ll get into more specifics about writing out goals next time.
Have a thriving year ahead!
