January 3rd. Resolutions still holding?

The First of the Year...  January, New Beginnings, Resolutions and Changes

A barn this old just doesn't happen, but develops a patina over time, weathering but still doing a fine job.  We too are developing and often times, working through problems along the way.

What does it look like as we start the new year?  What does it take to build changes in ourselves as we'll as others?  This humble discussion of resolutions is by no means the authority but purely observations.

First, we identify areas of concern.  We look for a few things that we can address, sort of like a debt counselor might suggest start paying off the little bills first. Don't spread things too thin, but focus on a few smaller goals to ensure success.  Tackling too much often overwhelms even the most committed.

Second, a few actions step, easy to put in place, simple to accomplish with little support and verifiable make up the traits of a good plan.  Often times, benchmarks along the way help pacing and monitoring progress.  This may be easy or tough but often a single step, when repeated enough becomes a life changing pattern or behavior.

This brings us to the third step: repetition. Forming a new habit is essentially a great way to practice changing behavior.  After this new behavior is repeated enough, it becomes a habit and lives will come to reflect changes.  During this repetition, the mind often changes as well.  Daily habits and new patterns are foundational to successful life changes.   Changing the mind is the hard part but it can be done.  This is called by many names; centering a locus of control, affirmations, self-talk, strong self-esteem and positive nature are all examples and phrases referring to some aspect of positive perspectives.

Finally, the changed behavior along with the changed belief together form the combination necessary to identify, articulate, integrate life changes, also called resolutions.  Looking back over time, noticing the differences, some intentional and some naturally following maturity adds extra confidence for forming additional goals.

Change is constant.  Our roles could be active or passive.  Making resolutions is a great ways to set a goal, practice, fail, retry, and maybe fail again but remaining focused on the outcome, knowing distractions will happen but success is our goal.