3 Glues to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick (and an Invitation)
We recently entered a new year and a new decade – today is the third day of the third week of the third decade in the third millennium.(click to tweet) Phew! Maybe you, like me, needed that reminder of what day it is. I’m hardly over the holidays, are you? I started the new year exhausted and sick. God has a way of giving us rest when we need it most, doesn’t He?
How did your new decade begin? Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Mine has to do with my word for the year – passion. Many things have tried to knock me down and put roadblocks in my way in my writing journey, but I am resolute to renew my passions and go after them. However, I know how hard resolutions are to keep. This got me thinking about why resolutions fail so often and how we can help make them “stick.”
Here’s some glue:
- Have a clear goal for your resolution and a detailed plan to meet that goal.
What is the reason you decided to do this or that? What would you like to achieve? What are the benefits (to you and others) if you achieve your goal, and what are the downfalls if you do not? What will you do/change/sacrifice to achieve your goal? Maybe that’s the most important question of all. Simply adding something to our schedule can be a recipe for failure. What else needs to change in order to achieve this new goal? Let’s be intentional.
- Don’t try to do it alone.
When we’re alone, we have no support or accountability. But if we find someone who can help cheer us on and keep us accountable, and we them, our chances of a “win” are all the greater.
Colossians 1:17 tells us, “in Him all things hold together.” We are all part of the body of Christ, bonded together like glue by Him, and so we need each other.
- Don’t let small failures make you give up on your big goal.
We all fall down now and then. Don’t stay there! Get up and keep trying again, and again… Expect detours and plan for them. Remember it takes about 21 days to make a habit, so keep going, keep trying. Achieving our goals or resolutions is a choice we must make. We often succeed or fail based on our own choices (or lack of).
Each year, many people resolve to spend more time with God in the Bible and prayer, but become discouraged within a couple weeks when life throws them off course (and it will!). Several people told me they were going to start my book, Pursuing Prayer, at the beginning of the new year. I’ve wondered how it’s going. So, I have set up a Pursuing Prayer Facebook Group page so we will all have an online community of like-minded, fellow strugglers to support and encourage us – you know, that accountability I was talking about. It can be a sort of Bible study group, even for your group if you’re doing the book with others (please tell them about it). It will be a place to talk about the book, our challenges and victories with prayer and our faith journey. I invite you to go on over to the group page and ask to join here.
You don’t have to have the book to join, just a desire to grow in your faith through prayer and God’s Word, to be encouraged and to be an encourager to others.
Let’s make our resolutions stick and our prayer lives roar in 2020! (click to tweet)
Blessings,
Penny
Join the conversation – what was your resolution? How is it going so far? How can we pray for you?
For more information or to obtain a copy of the book Pursing Prayer – Being Effective in a Busy World, click here. May God bless your prayer life in 2020, and may this book help bring on a revival of prayer for our families and our nations!
Also, my free gift for you, “Ten Prayer Tips for Busy Days,” may be downloaded here.