“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – William Deming
Happy New Year! I made it to 11:37 pm before sleep overtook me. Such is life when you are middle-aged. Just a few years back missing the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day would have been sacrilegious. With age and the wisdom that comes with it (hopefully), I’m not as concerned about seeing the new year arrive as I am about living it fully. Thus, the quote. New Year’s Day is a great time to deal with an engrained behavioral or thought pattern. Deming’s quote reminds me that it takes a radical shift to break out of a deep rut.
I’m talking about more than New Year’s resolutions. About half of Americans still make them, but only 8% of those people keep them. The sarcastic skeptic in me struggles with the idea of long-term change. I am equal parts of a motivational poster and a parody of that poster. The first shows an eagle gliding high in the sky with the heading, “Soar with the Eagles.” The parody says something like, “Eagles soar, but buzzards don’t get sucked into jet engines!” Sometimes I’m the eagle and sometimes the buzzard.
That said, we all need to grow until we go. I don’t ever want to stop growing. I hope that’s true of you as well. Here’s three suggestions for how to do that:
- Make SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound – Resolutions/goals with all of these elements are much more likely to be achieved.
- Believe there is always hope for change. “Hope” here is not a wish, but an expectation. As a Christ-follower, God is the source of my hope. Because of that I agree with Chuck Swindoll, “It’s never too late to start doing what’s right.” (Incredible timing…The Today Show just aired a story about a man who found and apologized to two sisters he relentlessly bullied in school…60 years ago. One sister said that it healed her past. They are now close friends. Point well-illustrated.)
- Just do it today. “Today, I’m going to turn over a new leaf. Tomorrow, it may blow back over, but today this is what I’m going to do.” I made that up and it’s not profound, but it speaks to me. If I can string a few todays together, I’m on my way to a good habit. Even if (when) I blow it on some days, “three steps forward two steps backward” is still one step of forward growth.
It’s almost 10 am and Jeanne and I are about to look through our junk and find some things we can sell or trash. This is a LONG-term goal for us! Bama plays at one so I need to be finished by then. Thanks for reading, liking, following, sharing and anything else you can do to get the skepticalbeliever.blog out. Have a Happy New Year! See you next week.