Another year has ended and a new year has arrived with new opportunities and dreams to hope for. There’s always a sense of optimism when the new year rolls around. A new beginning to get things right, to stop procrastination, and to finish goals that have been collecting dust for a year or more. So in the midst of our joyous celebration of a fresh start and a new calendar to mark up, we plan our resolutions for the year. We’re hopeful that this year will be different. In 2015, we’re going to lose the weight, get that promotion, spend more time with our families, or finally finish that book that’s been saved on our laptop forever.
But do we follow through? Did we chart our progress in 2014 and complete the resolutions we made in January?
Perhaps you didn’t even make resolutions in 2014 because the idea of making resolutions is so passé and you simply cannot take it seriously. But what are resolutions, really? They are goals we set for ourselves to accomplish within a year. Despite what you may consider a tired trend between December 31st to January 1st to create resolutions, the goal-setting should never become a tiresome pursuit in our lives. Goal-setting pushes us out of our comfort zones and drives us to strive for something greater than the status quo. And while some people make the same resolutions each year and never see them come to fruition, we should not be disillusioned and abandon the practice completely.
I’d like to share some of my resolutions (goals) with you for 2015, in the hope that you will be spurred to make your own resolutions this year and succeed. I’ve created several categories for my resolutions varying from personal goals, spiritual goals, and literary goals. I’ll share the latter since it seems most appropriate:
- Finish my second novel, Thy Kingdom Come, by April.
- Start and finish the first chapter of the sequel to The Blade Heir before April.
- Publish my first podcast before February.
- Complete an audiobook for The Blade Heir by October.
- Guest blog on at least three well-known blogs by August.
If you know me at all, you’d know these are very ambitious goals. My time constraints are pretty big these days with a family of three (soon to be four in May!), a full-time job, a part-time teaching position starting this month, and volunteering at my church. Is it plausible that I’ll be able to meet all of my resolutions this year? Probably not. But that doesn’t stop me from planning out the year and it shouldn’t stop you either.
I’ve come to learn we need resolutions to keep us on track. It’s a means of keeping our motivation up and our head in the game. Whenever I don’t write down my goals or plan things out, I forget and nothing gets done. I’m not a planner by any means, so this is challenging for me and anyone who is less organized or lives by the seat of their pants. But I highly encourage you spontaneous, day-by-day people to make some resolutions. You won’t forget or lose sight of what you’re striving for this year, if it’s recorded on paper. Plus, It’s immensely more satisfying to meet some of your goals rather than none.
One final note on resolutions: make sure you share them. Sharing what you’re planning to accomplish this year will help keep you accountable to family and friends. It’s actually one of the reasons I’m sharing my goals with you! Sure, you can write down your goals and keep them to yourself, but who’s checking in with you on those resolutions mid-year? Nobody. So it’s much easier to procrastinate and excuse a lackadaisical approach to meeting your resolutions. Having a circle of friends or family supporting your endeavors will bolster your confidence greatly and come December 2015, you might have lots of resolutions to cross off your list this year.
What are your resolutions/goals for the year? Please share them in the comments section below.
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