New Year's Resolutions...

Photo by: US Military

New Year’s Resolutions…

Again?

Here we are…AGAIN…another New Year. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Are they the kind that STICK? Or, like me (and many others I know), do we resolve only to ride the roller coaster down to a new (or same old) bottom, get discouraged, and give up…AGAIN and AGAIN…

I’ve shared this before. One of my favorite quotes regarding change is from someone who is in recovery, Russell Brand:

Change is possible!

Hope is real!

Another, from a new friend:

Awareness + Grace = Deep Change

Some of you know the consultant, Allan Willman. In what I later thought was just a throw-away line, Allan said:

All change is proceeded by AWARENESS.

All change requires me

to get UNCOMFORTABLE.

That second part…I admit I don’t really like. However, if I am tired (maybe sick and tired) of riding the roller coaster of new New Year’s Resolutions, only to abandon them weeks into ANOTHER New Year, what is the alternative? Time to get a bit uncomfortable. To realize, as various studies have shown:

Willpower is limited.

Willpower alone won’t lead to lasting change.

I need something greater than willpower

if I want to change…read, “be transformed.”

I just started a book (that is one thing that hasn’t changed…Mark reading books… ). The book is called Practicing the Way. It’s written by John Mark Comer. (I’ve cited Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry in a blog I wrote in September of last year.) In it, Comer says that we are either being CONFORMED (read SQUEEZED) or TRANSFORMED (changed…made into something OTHER than what we’ve heretofore been). AND, make no mistake, we are all being FORMED.

Who are you – who am I – BECOMING?

Comer says that there are three things that form us:

• Stories (the stories we live and the stories that we play in our heads)
• Habits (practices – things we do over and over again – good and bad – which can be changed)
• Relationships (we become like those we hang out with)

This journey of life, no matter what we’ve been told or come to believe, is not a solo gig. Others have said it…originally, it was written about by John Donne:

No person is an island.

We journey with others and with our stories. Our habits form and shape us. What are the stories you live in and tell yourself. What direction are your habits taking you on your journey? And, who are the people shaping me?

This new friend I mentioned above lives in South Africa. We “meet” monthly via Zoom. I’m seeking counsel from him. His term for this is Accompaniment.

Who is accompanying you on your journey?

If you don’t have anyone, find someone. Reach out. You’ll be glad you did! Maybe then, some of those resolutions might just STICK.