EP 106: 10 New Year’s Resolutions We All Should Make

I love the fresh start January represents, so I normally kick it off with a list of New Year’s resolutions as long as my arm.

Some of my goals are specific and easily quantifiable: Walk a mile a day. Read a book a week. Get 7 hours of sleep a night. That way, even if I only walk 5-6 miles a week, read 3 books a month, or occasionally stay up late, I’ll still be better off than if I didn’t try to do those things at all. 

But some of my goals – the really challenging ones – take the form of more general reminders. Today I’m sharing ten such resolutions I think should be on everybody’s list.

The material for much of today’s episode comes from a blog post I published 13 years ago — my, how time flies! To read that original post in its entirety, just scroll down below today’s show notes and the introductory remarks in the episode transcript.

New Year Plans, Projects, & Purpose

Full Transcript from Episode 106

Hello, Friend. Welcome to Episode 106 of Loving Life at Home.

Christmas is behind us and, Lord willing, a bright shiny new year will be getting underway at midnight tonight! Although I’ll probably go to bed early and won’t be able to greet 2026 until I wake up tomorrow morning.

Nevertheless, the turning of the year is a great time to think back over the past twelve months, to consider where you’ve been and how far, by God’s grace, you’ve come, and to reflect on His blessings and faithful provision.

And then it’s also an opportune time to prayerfully look ahead and write down any hopes or dreams or goals or resolutions you may have for the future.

So that’s the topic I’d like to discuss today: New Year’s plans, projects, purpose, and productivity.

I know the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions seems to elicit polarized reactions. Some people resist the idea amazing tenacity and fortitude. The only thing they’ll resolve to do is to never make a new year’s resolution.

Others start the year with a list of resolutions longer than their arm – I’ve been known to do that myself — but one-by-one, they abandon those resolutions the minute they spoil their perfect streak of success. Which often means that, within a few weeks, they’re back to square one.

Those failures can sometimes feel just as disheartening as never trying at all.

Over the years, I’ve learned to strike a happy medium between those two extremes.

There IS value in having a target to shoot for: a well-defined goal, a plan to get you there, a dream you actively work on to make it come true.

But there is also wisdom in maintaining an eternal perspective, in recognizing our need for God’s help and direction and blessing, and in realizing the fact that – apart from divine enablement — our own will-power is insufficient for keeping any resolutions or making any dreams come true.

I can think of several Bible verses that underscore this point:

• Proverbs 16:9 tells us, “A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”
• Proverbs 19:21 reminds us, “Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will stand.”
• In Jeremiah 10:23, the prophet writes, “I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.”
• And I’ve always found James 4:13-15 particularly convicting. It reads, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’”

In light of these verses and others like them, I think it’s important we (first) acknowledge God’s sovereignty over everything we do and (second) pray for HIS direction and wisdom in deciding which goals to pursue and which don’t deserve our time or attention.

That’s sometimes easier said than done, especially if you are a person who likes to say yes when people ask you to do something. Just because you are capable of doing a task doesn’t automatically mean that task belongs on your to-do list.

My husband had to remind me of this fact just yesterday. There was a chore that needed doing that was really another person’s responsibility, and I started to volunteer to take it off their plate, but Doug said, “Jennifer, you have enough projects and responsibilities of your own – you don’t need to be taking on any others right now.”

And he was right. So I didn’t push the matter.

Of course, we are called to carry one another’s burdens and to be generous with the resources God has given and invest them wisely, which includes not only our money, but our time and our talents, as well. But we shouldn’t “court neglect of our present duties by assuming others.”

There is such a thing as being spread too thin, and everybody suffers when you let that happen.

So, pray about your goals and the projects you take on. Seek guidance from the LORD– and advice from your spouse. Consider what other responsibilities are on your plate and how much expendable time you have to devote to new endeavors.

My daughter-in-law gave me a wonderful little book this summer called How Can I Feel Productive as a Mom. I’ll be sure to link it in today’s show notes. I think it’s $3 or $4 on Amazon – a quick read, only 30-35 pages long, but very insightful.

The gist of the book is that, instead of measuring productivity by how many items we’re able to check off a to-do list, we need to think about it in terms of how wisely we have used our time.

I think that’s good advice.

The fact is– the things that are most easily measured are seldom the things that matter most in our lives. The most important things are much harder to quantify.

I found this to be true in my cancer research. The things researchers can track in a lab – like how much a tumor shrinks in response to a particular drug –have little bearing to what matters most to the patient – like whether that drug will improve my quality of life and help me live longer if I take it? Because, guess what? Just because a medicine kills cancer doesn’t automatically mean it prolongs life. Sometimes the opposite is true.

In the same way, it’s easy to track how many books you read in a year or how many miles you walk in a week or how many loads of laundry you wash, dry, fold, and put away.

It’s much harder to quantify how respected your husband feels in your presence, how much love and support your actions convey to your children, how available they’d say you are when they need help or want to talk, how closely you’re walking with Jesus, or how evident the fruit of the Spirit is in your daily life – how loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle, faithful, and self-controlled you are to the people around you.

None of those are things any of us can check off a to-do list – but they should all be central to how we spend our time and relate to others. See what I mean?

Of course, that fact doesn’t keep me from making New Year’s resolutions or to-do lists – I generally make lots of both. But it does keep me from feeling like a failure if I don’t check everything off my list.

It also means I don’t give up completely on the new habit I’m trying to establish just because I miss a day here and there.

Because sometimes the unexpected interruptions are much more important than the premeditated plans and to-do lists and even the habit formation. People matter more than projects.

So, I go ahead and make my plans and — LORD willing – also make some steady progress toward achieving my goals. After all, “It’s better to shoot for the moon and get off the ground than to aim for a lamppost and stay where you are.” Or something like that. I’m not entirely sure who said that originally, but I heard the quote many years ago and it’s stuck with me. As has Zig Ziglar’s observation that “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

But I also do my best to remain flexible and to do everything the glory of God, which is the whole reason He created any of us in the first place. That is our purpose and divine end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  

I did a podcast a couple of years ago on how to increase the likelihood of sticking with your resolutions and reaching your goals while still being flexible and making allowances for occasional setbacks. I’ll link that one in the show notes and won’t rehash those tips here, except to encourage you to pray it through and ask for God’s help.

• For, as Luke 1:37 proclaims, “…with God nothing will be impossible.”
• And, as Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 , “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
• Or in 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.”

I have a pretty, free printable prayer guide for praying over the new year –whether you make any resolutions or not– which I’ll also link in today’s show notes.

Like I said before, I usually start each year with a laundry list of goals and resolutions.

Some things are always on my list, like praying with my husband every morning or reading through the Bible cover-to-cover each year. I’ve done both of those things for decades – I’ll link my favorite Bible reading plan in the show notes —  so my goal is to just keep on keeping on with those kinds of things.

But other things on the list are new.

Last year, after getting my breast cancer diagnosis shortly before Christmas, I resolved to cut all refined sugar and refined flour out of my diet, and to drastically reduce my consumption of meat and cheese.

I’ve stayed faithful to the first two goals (and as a result, I’m now 60 pounds lighter and all my blood work looks great), but I’ve eaten more cheese in the past two weeks than I had in the previous 11 months combined (and I’m paying the price, as that  probably explains why my face is suddenly breaking out in zits for the first time in a year). So one of my new year’s resolutions is to go back to a primarily vegan diet .

Most of my goals are specific and easily quantifiable:

• Walk a mile a day.
• Read a book a week.
• Get 7 hours of sleep a night.

That way, even if I only walk 5-6 miles a week, read 3 books a month, or occasionally stay up late, I’ll still be better off than if I didn’t try to do those things at all.

But some of my goals – the really challenging ones – take the form of more general reminders. Here are ten such resolutions I think should be on everybody’s list:

If the idea of making multiple resolutions overwhelms you, you may want to focus on one improvement at a time. Work on whatever thing you choose for a solid month, then once that priority becomes an established habit, you can add something else in. Doesn’t that sound doable?
The trick to making good on any new goal is to post it in a prominent place and review it daily until it becomes second nature, so – at the request of one of my readers —  I’ve made a cute little printable of these ten resolutions and will link it in the show notes. In the meantime, no matter what your plan, projects, or priorities, I pray God grants you success in the New Year in all the areas that matter most!mes second nature. Here’s wishing you every success in the New Year!

[UPDATE: At the request of a reader, I’ve now made a printable version of this list of 10 New Year’s Resolutions We All Should Make. Click on the button below to download your copy.]

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