New Year, Same Me,

New Year's Resolutions That Work.

I love this time of the year. The holidays are past, and we are ready to blast into the new year and rock it. It’s like we get a new beginning, everything is fresh, we get to start over, and then come the nasty New Year’s resolutions that we know we are going to fail at. In case you haven’t heard the facts about New Year’s resolutions, here they are.

“Of Americans who make New Year's resolutions, only 9% were successful in keeping them. They’ve even found that most people toss in the towel on January 19; they are calling January 19 "Quitter's Day." How depressing is that? WOW!

Have you noticed that most New Year’s resolutions are about everything that we don’t like?

You know, the things we are failing at or the things we think we can be better at. And that’s a good thing, right?

What if this year, instead of focusing on all the wrong things in our lives, we make some resolutions about good things? WOW! How radical is that? We don’t ignore the bad things we want to change; by all means, work on those. Instead, we focus our attention and efforts on what is working in our lives. We focus on the good things.

Here is what I call my Anti-New Year’s Resolution. “I’m not going to spend my entire January focused on everything I am failing at. Instead, I will focus on what is working in my life and put most of my time and energy into making them better while working on those areas that need to be better.” It’s really just a matter of focus. Right?

Now, here is a little anti-religious explanation. Check out this verse I use it to keep me focused.

Philemon NKJV - 6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

To acknowledge means to “show that one has noticed by a greeting. To address, to nod, to wave, to raise one's hat to another,” (I’m gonna tip my hat to the good things), I love that. When we see good things in our lives we should talk about it, we raise our hands and give thanks for it, and we take the time to tip our hats and acknowledge them.

For me, this has a huge impact. It changes my attitude, it changes the atmosphere around me, it changes my focus for sure. At work in the store and wherever I go I am looking for good things to acknowledge, and I hope you will too.

So how about that for a New Year’s resolution? It has changed my life, and I believe it will change yours too. I believe we will blow right past “Quitters Day” and make this a lifestyle instead of a New Year’s resolution.

I ain’t quittin’,

Jimmie