New Year’s Revolution

I’M SICK OF RESOLUTIONS!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously-I really am.

For quite some time now, I’ve forsaken the common practice of declaring a New Year’s Resolution for each burgeoning year.  Remember how your last resolution to improve your diet (and lose a few), was overtaken and brutally beaten to death by that apple pie craving?  How about that iron-clad resolve to improve your time management skills that gave up the ghost on the battlefield of procrastination?

Trust me; I have experienced my share of “resolution regret” over my lifetime.  I do, however, love to entertain the notion of intentional contemplation.  Goals are great, and I have nothing against them; but goals without achievable, corresponding tasks are like cars without engines.

So for me, this year marks the death of “resolution regret.”  I lay to rest the corpse of empty excitement, devoid of life-changing action.

As we straddle the threshold between 2014 and 2015, let’s start a New Year’s REVOLUTION!!!!

A revolution demands inward change, before outward change is manifested.  It’s not just a hypocritical, temporary feeling of “I’m going to…”  In my experience, as long as we remain in the “I’m going to…” mindset, nothing ever gets done.  A revolution starts deep within an individual, and like wildfire, it spreads to the hearts of other individuals.

That’s right…revolutions are contagious.

Resolutions affect only the person, revolutions affect the public.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m guilty of thinking too small.  Let’s not limit our potential to the little boxes of our New Year’s Resolutions.  Instead, let us look out over the landscape of our lives and our communities to assess the possibilities that exist, by touching the lives of other people.  We are so much bigger than the commitments that we make to ourselves.  We were meant to deposit something great in this earth; a contribution that speaks to the fact that we were here, and we lived our lives intentionally and in High-Def.

Change is only the beginning.  It begins with us, but it should never end in us.  In the words of French Poet, Alphonse de Lamartine:

 “Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never do.” (Alphonse de Lamartine~~1790-1869)

Happy New Year…and let the revolution begin!

---

As always, thank you for visiting Wisdom’s Quill. See you soon.

Keep Learning ♦ Keep Loving ♦ Keep Living

Editor: Jaime Evans

BE

Fourth Quarter Tune-Up

Remember January 1, 2014? 

Seems like such a long time ago, right?  How about all of those New Year’s resolutions floating around in the air (including yours)?  Let’s get personal.  What was your number one resolution?

Start that workout routine?

Eat healthier?

Manage your time better?

Save more money?

Relax more?

 

How’s that going for you?

The truth is, about 45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but only 8% achieve those goals.  Pretty depressing, huh?  In fact, some people  (about 38% of Americans) have resolved to not make resolutions at all (University of Scranton.  Journal of Clinical Psychology).

Let’s pause for a moment of silence for all of the resolutions that have given their lives for our fleeting motivations…

Statistics like these are very telling within our society concerning the evanescence of our motivation.  Just recently I was engaged in a short conversation with two coworkers, and the subject of exercise came up.  I was asked if I was going to workout that day;  my response was one of mixed emotions, because I knew I needed to workout, but I just wasn’t motivated at the time.  Excuses flooded my soul, and all of the things that I needed to do after work presented themselves to my mind one by one.  Eventually, I did recover from the assault on my mind and found the grit to part the doors of the gym for another successful workout.

Within that same conversation, one of my coworkers expressed concern for the usual after-work crowd that makes it difficult to occupy the desired cardio equipment.  This raised some very interesting thoughts, which spawned this very post.  Many of us who faithfully attend the gym are very familiar with the mid-year trail off.  When January 1 of each year rolls around, you can expect to see a massive influx of people hitting the gym, as if brand new sexy bodies were being given away in the cardio section.

Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way.

In many cases, by the time June hits, the numbers have dwindled so; treadmills are virtually screaming for some action.  The psychology of motivation is such a mystery, experts are still trying to figure it out; what causes it, and why is it so fleeting?  I think we all can agree that we’ve been there at some point in our own lives.

Fast-forward to your “now.”  Here it is, fourth quarter 2014, and less than four months left in this year; I sincerely ask you…

Are you on track to accomplish your goals for this year?

I know-I know…you’ve had some set-backs, failures, obstacles and opposition.  So have I.  You would not believe the year that I’ve had…but I’m grateful for it all.  Through all of your trials this year alone, kudos to you for still being here, and not just surviving, but thriving.  I know it’s been hard…please know that I can relate, but think of me as your coach today.  This is the last time out in the fourth quarter…get back in the game, you can win!

In the game of football, if a defender interferes with the receiver’s ability to connect with a pass, the referees generally calls a Pass Interference penalty against the defense.  The result of this penalty, in many cases, is a 10-yard advance for the offense.  God is about to advance you as you approach the final push of 2014.  We can’t forget that we are in a battle, and our enemy is real.  He has wreaked so much havock in your life by interfering with the clean reception of all that God has prepared for you, but God has blown the whistle and thrown the flag…Blessing Interference penalty on the enemy.  Your Father is about to stop the assault on your life, so that you can make up precious ground.  According to Joel 2:25, God is able to restore the years that have been damaged and the time that has been lost for whatever reason; our only requirement is to stay connected to Him, and in turn to our purpose.

Receive  that!!!

I encourage you to reconnect to God; reconnect to your plan; and reconnect to your passion.  Remember the reason why you committed to that change in the first place.  If your goal was to lose weight for health reasons, then reconnect with those reasons.  Is it that you want to feel better, look better, and live longer?  Reconnect with that.  If your goal was to be the king/queen of organization, think about that pumped feeling you got every time you thought about accomplishing your goal.  Connect to those feelings, then just do it.  See yourself there over and over again in your mind.  Meditate on it, write a plan, live it out in your imagination.

See it to BE it. 

Even though motivation is a mystery, it is not an impossibility.  You can do this.  It’s fourth and goal, and we’re down to the “2-minute warning.”  You’re too close to let it slip through your fingers.

 

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).

You’re almost there!!!  PUSH!!!

 

 

Editor: Jaime Evans

As always, thank you for visiting Wisdom’s Quill.  See you soon.

Keep Learning ♦ Keep Loving ♦ Keep Living

BE