EP 25: Making New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Keep

Since today is January 1 , for this week’s episode of the Loving Life at Home Podcast, I’m sharing 7 secrets for making New Year’s resolutions you’ll actually keep. 

Whether you call it goal setting or resolution making or vision mapping or just turning over a new leaf, TODAY is a fantastic opportunity to make some changes for the better! And that’s true whether you’re listening to this episode on New Year’s day or any other day of the year.

There’s no time like the present. So stop putting off for tomorrow what you can — and should — do right now by prayerfully making changes to the glory of God and the betterment of your own life.

Don’t Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Yet!

Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions this year? How’s it going? Are you sticking with the plan? Or have you already abandoned the idea completely?

A couple weeks into January, the majority of people are ready to give up. Actually achieving New Year’s goals requires uncommon grit. Researchers put the number of resolution-makers who succeed at a scant eight percent.

Giving up is so common, in fact, that we even have a day dedicated to throwing in the towel: Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day. It’s January 17. That’s today!

Yet giving up would be a mistake.

You had good reasons for wanting to make positive changes in the New Year. Don’t lose sight of them. And don’t base your continued efforts on sustaining a success streak free from slip-ups.

Maintaining a flawless record is not what’s most important. If any of us were capable of doing that, we wouldn’t need Jesus. The important thing is to get up, dust ourselves off, and try again when we fail. Hop back on the wagon. Remount the horse. Step up to the plate.

All by the empowering grace of God.

Practice doesn’t make perfect. But practice does make progress, as one wise person observed. It’s all about incremental improvements: Little by little. Inch by inch. Step by step.

So keep chipping away at those new habits you want to establish, regardless what kind of track record you’ve maintained thus far. Keep turning away from the bad habits you want to break, even if you occasionally goof up. One missed day — or a whole week of missed days — is no reason to ditch your New Year’s resolutions completely.

Keep On Keeping On

The more you practice these things, the more ingrained they’ll become into your routines. And eventually, they’ll seem second nature.

Some of the resolutions I used to make annually have become so much a part of who I am, I don’t even have to think about them anymore. In my twenties, getting up early, making my bed, and reading my Bible every morning required a tremendous amount of effort and determination. In my fifties, I couldn’t sleep in if I wanted to.

My goal these days is to maintain the good habits I’ve formed in the past as I work on additional goals for the future. On my list this year? Exercise 5 days/week. Eat more plants and less sugar. Floss faithfully. Memorize more scripture. Enjoy tech-free Sundays. Give my kids and grandkids more of the undivided attention they crave.

If you’re ready to keep working on your own goals instead of throwing up your hands in defeat, try the following tips:

7 Ways to Nail New Year’s Resolutions

1. Make it easy to succeed

The more convenient you make your resolutions, the more likely you’ll be to keep them.For instance, in addition to flossing, I want to be more consistent about taking my vitamins and rinsing with mouthwash. To ensure success, I put the Listerine in a tilt-to-pour oil dispenser and store my flossers and vitamins in decorative jars with lift-off lids right next to the sink. Not only does that make everything easy to access, but also provides a pretty visual reminder of my intent.

2. Narrow your focus

Tackle only a handful of habits at a time. It’s better to make consistent progress on a few than to burn out trying to change everything at once.My daughter Rachel came up with a fun way of doing this. She made a resolution box this year. She wrote down everything she wants to work on – one item per slip of paper – and tucked them into the box. Every morning, she draws out a “resolution” and makes that her focus for the day.

3. Break your goals down

Don’t let the magnitude of big goals paralyze or discourage you. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Break big goals into small chunks. No more procrastinating. No over-analyzing. Pick a course of action, set to work, and make any needed adjustments along the way.If my goal is to write a new book in 2020, I’ve got to come up with a game plan. It could be writing for a certain number of minutes each morning. Or churning out a daily quota of words. Or setting myself deadlines for outlining the book, completing a rough draft of each chapter, then proofreading and polishing each section of the manuscript.Having a detailed course of action is vital to success. What particular form those details take is entirely negotiable.

4. Review your goals regularly

Post a list in a prominent place. Put a photo on the fridge. Keep them visible and take time to read through them at least once a week.Otherwise, you may get distracted and forget all about what you originally set out to accomplish. When you’re tempted to ditch your New Year’s resolutions, spend some time thinking about why you set each particular goal in the first place.

5. Put away distractions

When I say stop giving your attention to things that impede your progress, I don’t mean ditch your God-given responsibilities. If you are a wife, your husband deserves a good portion of your attention. If you are a mother, you still need to nurture your little ones. Family members and the life-giving connections we maintain with them are not “distractions” to be avoided.No, I’m thinking more along the lines of putting away our digital devices. I’m all for technology, but have you ever felt that our smart phones and tablets often just free up more time for us to waste?If this is a problem for you, let this be the year you break that addiction. Set down the phone. Turn of the TV. Step away from the computer. Stop the endless scrolling through social media posts. All things in moderation! Don’t let excessive or ultimately meaningless online activities keep you from reaching the goals God puts on your heart.

6. Pray for endurance

Do the goals you set for the new year seem harder than you thought they’d be? Well, guess what? Building endurance is one of the purposes God has in mind when He allows us to encounter hardships in the first place. (James 1:2-3)Don’t let that discourage you. Slow progress is no reason to ditch your New Year’s resolutions. Instead, pray for strength to press in to the hard, drawing encouragement from verses like these:

• Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
• Luke 1:37 – “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
• 2 Corinthians 12:9 – “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
• Isaiah 40:31 – “Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

7. Leave the Results to God

That being said, we need to pray hard, work hard, and trust God with the results. You can write the book. But you can’t guarantee it will be a best seller.You can eat right and exercise daily. But you can’t dictate how quickly you drop unwanted pounds. (My baby weight is annoyingly stubborn while my metabolism is amazingly efficient.)You can study hard, make great grades, and get glowing recommendations. But it won’t get you into the school of your choice apart from God’s blessing. In all these things, God calls us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

It may be time to adjust your expectations, to narrow your focus, to hunker down and do the work. You may need to pray for an extra measure of perseverance and set up systems that will make it easier to succeed. But it isn’t time to ditch your New Year’s resolutions — no matter what the date on your calendar reads.

Jennifer Flanders loves the fresh start new years (and new months, new weeks, and new days) represent.

For more goal-setting tips and tricks, check out Jennifer’s (recently updated and expanded) Life Balance Bundle.