This year Aaron and I have set goals that focus around BECOMING better both individually and better together. To copy a phrase I heard last Sunday, we are trying to get rid of our REVOLUTIONS--goals that are so "good" they keep coming around year after year. :)
It seems to be that it takes little to no effort to break a good habit, and FOREVER to build it again. Here in lies the reason for resolutions: to make good/better habits. So how do you make/keep a good habit? Are they really that easy to break? Or is it only easy if you aren't 100% committed?
For example: As a child I used to bite my fingernails, being young, it didn't seem like I had any control over the action, it was just something I did and something that was a part of who I was. My Grandma Larson was always getting after me to stop and "let them grow". It took YEARS to break the habit. Looking back I don't remember the process or the exact day/moment when I finally committed to stop biting my nails, all I know is that I don't bite my nails anymore and it is something I would never dream of doing. My biting temptation no longer exists.
So, I pose a question for you to ponder, and I would appreciate any comments or opinions: Is a good habit really that easy to break? Or is it only easy if we aren't committed? And HOW do we commit ourselves, 100%?
It is not only my opinion but my conviction that our commitment level determines our success and the real challenge is overcoming being satisfied with who you are in order to allow yourself to BECOME something better.
As I begin my new year this is my new focus. Not on the goal, but on the commitment level, and overcoming mediocrity. It is easy to make a list of ways to BE better, but unless there is a desire and commitment to BECOME better, it is just a list on the refrigerator that will most likely be thrown away during spring cleaning.
7 years ago
3 comments:
Hey great post Monica. This year we are doing "focuses" instead of resolutions. So this year our focus is to be "on time." So thats about it. Good luck to you!
Hmmm . . . how about a commitment to just do one thing better every day? Not to try to figure out or force the outcome but to really focus on BECOMING the outcome. Making sure your goals are things you can control and simply, by doing them, BECOMING . . . better. Just better. And the more you feel fantastic because you know you are better - you brushed your teeth before falling asleep, you read scriptures with your kids during breakfast even though you didn't do it at 5 AM when you wanted to have your perfect personal scripture study, you sat down with Aaron for 15 minutes and just enjoyed being together even though you had a sink of dishes calling your name (and you managed to tell the sink to be quiet so you weren't distracted from Aaron the entire time you were sitting with him). All those good choices add up and create the becoming. You are a person who does something better every day . . . and one day, you'll do ALL of them better in the SAME day . . . and then for a week . . . and then for a month . . . and then you won't remember when you didn't. But that timeline . . . well, does it really matter? Those are my thoughts. Maybe I'm getting lax in my old age! LOL! :-)
Go here and scroll down to the posts about Goal Setting and New Year's Resolutions -- I thought they were really good! Today is going to be FANTASTIC! Tomorrow, too! And next month, and the whole year! http://rowdystroudy.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment