How NOT To Make a New Year's Resolution

It's that time of year again. Christmas is over, New Year's is on the way, and people are saying what is expected of them - hey, let's set some New Year's Resolutions? What are your goals for the year? What can you accomplish this year? Yada, yada, yada, boom, boom, boom. 

What do you think is the most popular or common New Year's Resolution? Losing weight, maybe? I've heard, esp. lately, that 90% of the people who make a New Year's resolution to lose weight, or become fit, fail to keep their resolution. Well, duh, I could have told you that. I've done that! Who hasn't? 

A New Year comes along and all of a sudden, it's time to analyze your life, what is good, what is bad, what you can change, what you cannot. But come February and March, when the "resolutions" are pretty much in hindsight now, what do you do then? Make another resolution in March? Or does it become just another notch in the bedpost of failed resolutions and you go on. 

So what is a "Resolution"? Dictionary says it is a "resolve or determination; the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure". So you resolve to do something, you determine a way to do it. But here's the hard part - actually doing it. 

Let's go to the heart of the matter - the actually doing it part. You've already read all about making New Year's Resolutions. If yours is weight-related or health-related or fitness-related, you've probably even read more. How many times you should work out a week, what specific foods you should eat, what classes you should take, what foods you should not eat, how to set weight goals. That's all fine and dandy, if you can do it. But if you've failed in the past and you knew all of this in the past [health information], then what's going to change this time around? How many years have you made the resolution to get in shape or lose weight? Has it happened yet? What can you do to finally make a change?

How about NOT making a New Year's Resolution? 

How about going against the grain and everyone else you know? Don't set yourself up for failure. Don't set unrealistic timelines. Don't make yourself do something you don't really want to do. Don't make a New Year's Resolution. There, do you feel better? Is some of the pressure off now? 

Now let's get to the other heart of the matter - what's in your heart? Really in your heart? What is the one thing _____ that you want to do in your life that you are not doing? 

What is the one thing _____ that you secretly say to yourself, "When I get in shape, I will do this _____"? or "When I lose weight, I will do this ______"? 

Can I tell you something? If we take all of those ______'s and multiply them ________ by everyone who is not doing their  ________, we'd have a whole lot of ______________________ done in the world. What are we missing by not doing our _______? World Peace, the answer to cancer, being nice to your neighbor, friendliness, love, new businesses, books, geniuses. What exactly are we missing out on? We're missing out on a whole lot of people [2 out of 3 people have a weight problem in America right now] who are not accomplishing their goals, their heart's desires. They will do it when they get in shape, and they are not getting in shape. They will do it when they lose weight, and they are not losing weight. 

I'm asking you to make a difference. I'm asking you to make a change. My life changed 9 years ago when I decided to STOP making the resolutions and just SHUT UP and do it. It's not a once-a-year thing for me to make goals. It's an every month thing, an every week thing, an every day thing. I choose to get up and be healthy. I choose to eat healthy foods. I choose to workout my body. And I choose to do my _____. 

Get free from the annual "New Year's Resolution" this year by NOT making a New Year's Resolution, but by deciding what you really want in your life. Decide if you really want to do _____, and then just go out there and do it. Make the steps to do it, make the plans, you know how, just follow your heart, listen to your INSIDE voice. It starts with the inside. 

I'm going to do it today, are you?