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The Gratification of a Resolution

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Culture

Well, I’m only 5 days late to say Happy New Years to everyone. The holidays have been a whirlwind of events with 3 different Christmas celebrations, a visit from my Dad to meet his grandson for the first time, a New Years party and a new job. It’s been an exciting 2 weeks.

Now that the new year is upon us it’s time for everyone to make their resolutions for change. Resolutions have become a joke in our American culture. Instead of a list of goals we wish to achieve, the majority of people see them as a list of the first things to fail on in the new year. I think this view of resolutions is based on many factors, but on in particular is our view that we have to achieve these goals immediately. Our society wants instant gratification in whatever it does and resolutions are now different.

During college I worked in a health club, and every year in January I would see membership spike as people flocked to the gym in hopes of losing 15-30lbs as part of their New Year resolutions. However by March the majority of resolution holders joined our list of paying non-attending membership. Instant gratification (IG) was the poison that crippled their efforts.

Now, I’m not immune from this IG poison. It’s easy to want to achieve a goal without working for it or having an realistic plan for accomplishing it.  But the first step, as with any problem is to acknowledge the problem of IG.  The second step is to set goals that our realistic and can be accomplished in more than one way. A resolution to loose 30lbs is specific and achievable, but the goal could be easily defeated by life.  However, a goal to live a healthier life can be accomplished through multiple paths and can include loosing 30lbs.  The key to setting the goal is defining specif checkpoints to help you know how and when you’ve accomplished the goal.

Another key to overcoming the IG poison in new year resolutions is to hold yourself accountable to your goals. You can do this by writing them down, sharing them with others that will encourage you, and reviewing them on a regular basis and adjusting them if necessary.

I hope that everyone accomplishes their new year resolutions for 2008.

MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS:

• Live healthier by exercising and doing more physical activities.
• Try a new activity.
• Mentor/Disciple someone in my life.
• Build better Bible study habits.

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Tags: Culture, New Year, Resolutions