ROSE WRITES: We’re over three weeks into the new year and now’s the time when our resolutions start to slip. It begins with eating one bag of chips or watching one movie instead of reading until we’re sliding back into old bad habits. How do you re-inspire yourself to follow your resolutions? And then how do you stick to them?
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It depends on what your resolution is, but for some things, I like to make a schedule and that way I am more likely to do whatever thing I resolved to do each day or week. As for eating potato chips, (or just food resolutions in general) Make out a plan of what you’re going to eat, and don’t eat extra stuff.
Also, remember that sticking to resolutions is another type of “little hard things”, so we should treat them with commitment the same as we should be treating other “little hard things” with commitment.
Get someone else involved (preferably someone you are in contact with regularly). Ask them to keep you accountable. Also, pray to God and ask him to give you the strength and perseverance to keep on going. As Olivia W. said, building a daily routine, or a schedule, can help.
I prefer not to call them resolutions but rather goals as I find them easier to keep. Like this year I want to read The Bible cover to cover (So far so good!), I want to be a better sister and that involves holding my tongue when she’s trying to annoy me or not getting upset over the smaller things, I want to spend less time on the internet and that means getting out the rut of checking the internet every time I think about it, leaving my cell phone with my mom and rereading my most loved books and getting involved in things like babysitting, playing with my little brother more often, spending more time with God and on school. But how to I make sure I don’t slip and mess up? Get accountability someone to make sure you don’t slip no matter how much you just want to spend ten more minutes on the internet, playing that video game or watch the next episode of your favourite TV show. Habits are hard things to break and some of them have to be ruthlessly removed from your life because leaving even a little bit makes you vulnerable to going back to them.
I think that writing your goals down and putting them up somewhere you can see them (on a wall would work) can help remind you of what you’re trying to do. You could also tell your parents if you live with them, they’re pretty good at that type of thing.
Yay, I’m not the only one who doesn’t do “resolutions”! 😉
Yay!!! I’m not the only person in the world who believes in goals over resolutions!! *high fives Ana* 😀
Stagger your goals if you can. Start out small, then go big. If you want to eat healthy, eat one deathly thing a day and over time make it so that your whole day is healthy. Also, don’t forget to reward yourself. It seems silly and worldly, but lets face it, we need motivation and just “being better” isn’t going to cut it. Say you go for a week without eating any junk food, let yourself have a very yummy, healthy snack. Or watch that movie you’ve been dying to see. Anywho, off to take my own advice. 😉
What I’ve found really helpful for my time on internet is to limit it only to my family’s desktop/iPad. It’s more objective and your not constantly reminded of your notifications 🙂
One way I help myself keep goals before I even start them is by writing them down, and then breaking them into bite-size chunks. I set a date I want to have this thing done by or a date I want to be free of this thing by, then I break it down into how much I’m going to do each day. It has to be doable, or else I get discouraged, but if it’s doable I’m more likely to keep with it because it doesn’t feel like I’m trying to tackle this whole project or habit all at once. For example, if I’m trying to finish a book by a certain date, I break it down into how many pages I need to do each day. Or if I say I’m going to be on the internet less, I start by limiting myself to a certain time limit, and cutting it down every so many days, until I’m where I want to be. Accountability is always helpful, too. 🙂
This is the first year I’ve tried resolutions at all. But, really they’re more of goals than resolutions 🙂
I like to say, you either make failed goals or lifetime habits. Most goals for me (as in fitness or reading the Bible) either never happen or become so integrated into my lifestyle that I can’t help but stick to them.
Have someone keep you accountable, set attainable goals, and adjust your lifestyle to include them :).
So I’m not the only one dealing with fighting too much computer time then 🙂
I always write them down. I find it easer to start small. Instead of saying I’m going to do something BIG! I do things to led up to that BIG resolution. Like this year I want to advance more in my photography and my violin. My big thing is kind of a 2 year thing. by the time I’m 21 I want to have my brown belt in Kung Fu. I’m green right now so its a work in progres.
The word resolve literally means “to decide firmly on a course of action, and settle or find a solution to a problem”. This implies that resolutions are a commitment to change ones actions or fix a problem. Yes, believe it or not, we have problems. 🙂
So the idea of sticking to your resolutions is literally saying “I plan on fixing my own problems.” Which, by the world’s standards, is the climax of individualism. But we don’t live by the world’s standards, neither can we fix our problems by ourselves. We are called to go to God for our problems, not rely on our own strengths.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying resolutions are bad. I’m just saying the idea of fixing our own problems is corrupt. So just keep that in mind then next time you resolve to do something. The first thing you should resolve to do is to follow God’s will for your life.
Yeah I agree it’s a good idea to break things down to something that is doable! Often we try to do something all in one go and that’s so hard to accomplish. Great name by the way!
Pray about them each day.
Write them on a prayer list if you have one; otherwise make them the beginning of your prayer list. I’ve been doing this lately and it helps. Aside from being a good, daily reminder (and sometimes a convicting one), it helps me keep my resolutions in perspective (sometimes I realize how important something is and that I need to be doing something today, not someday in the future, but other times it makes me realize that a goal might be selfish). Praying about goals often reminds me to thank God for what He has already done and will do. Also, talking to God about my goals and everyday activities has drawn me closer to Him.
One other thing: I recommend not just making resolutions at the beginning of the year. If there’s something you should be doing, resolve to do it now.
Haha! Thanks! Back at ya!
I have one resolution: we the progressive silent majority wiill rise up and carry Bernie Sanders into the White House in november then we will RULE this country the way it was meant to be! We will take this country back from you right-wing homophobic, xenophobic, mysogynist teabaggers!!
Hi @YoungDemocrat:disqus ,
(First of all, I want you to know that I am not writing this angrily, gritting my teeth. I am writing calmly, with absolutely no hate towards you.)
Thanks for sharing your opinions with us. I’m not even American, so I don’t have anything to do with your politics, but all of us young people here on the Rebelution are Christians, meaning we love Jesus and seek to serve Him.
This means that we follow His teachings in the Bible. He tells us to treat everyone lovingly and to fear nothing. This includes homosexuals. We believe that their acts are against the laws God has given us to keep us happy, but we have all broken these laws, and God shows grace to anyone who turns to Him. We are not scared, and I know Christians have been unloving to homosexuals, but I apologize on their behalf. They are not following all God’s laws if they are unloving, but it is not unloving to gently tell someone the truth, even if the truth may be hurtful at first.
As for us being xenophobic and misogynist, the Bible also tells us that God created all people as equals and he loves them all just the same, no matter what race or which gender the person may be. If I didn’t believe that God has created and values each person, there would be very little reason for me to treat anyone kindly or with respect. After all, if we’re just pieces of flesh and a bunch of rearranged molecules, no one has any value, and whoever is strongest is perfectly right in enslaving or mistreating those who are weaker. Christianity was the first religion to teach that women and other races are equal to men in God’s sight and should not be mistreated. Men and women do have different roles which God has given them, but they are equal.
I know many Christians throughout history and in the present have not followed these laws of God, and I am sorry.
I hope perhaps you can understand a little better where Christians are coming from.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! 🙂
Heather
Very well and graciously put:)
Heather, I couldn’t agree with Clare more – you have put this response kindly and graciously. Thank you for being a biblical witness here on The Reb!
That being said, I chose to remove The Young Democrat’s comment due to the pictures that they included in their post. We’re all for healthy debate on here, but The Young Democrat clearly had no desire for that – and the pictures they posted were unedifying and inappropriate (especially in light of the fact that we recently resposted Brett’s article “The Other Side of Modesty” on Facebook). It would be unwise, I believe, to leave that comment up, potentially setting us up as a target for more trolls.
All that to say, you have written a great response and I wanted you to know that – even though I removed the original comment. Keep on doing what you’re doing (1 Cor. 10:31). Many blessings to you. 🙂
For me I actually set some goals because that’s easier for me to look at and try to follow. And at the start of the year things didn’t go all that well for me so I had pretty much thrown them out the door, but I ran into where I had written them down again just a few days and I was like these aren’t that bad. They are doable and they are things I can do. I think that’s one key to it. You have to set them as things that you see as possible or you’re not going to want to even try and accomplish them. When I start to think that maybe I should just not do them and that they aren’t important I look at how they will benefit not only me but also the people around me. And once I do that I can see that yeah I should and can still do this. It also helps if you can find someone to help hold you to them or find something that inspires you to continue doing them. And it never hurts to ask the man upstairs for some help in staying motivated to do them.
Thanks, Jaquelle!
I knew a moderator would be on their way to remove it due to the images.
There was a picture of the Honorable Senator Bernie Sanders, a tasteful picture of two gay males embracing (no nudity involved), and a picture of the LGBT flag. There was NOTHING inappropriate about those photos. Only a HOMOPHOBE like yourself would find those pictures “inappropriate”.
Hey Heather! What the f-ck gives YOU the right to smear the LGBTQ
community as a bunch of “sinners”? Your right-wing Catholic hypocrite
priests spew homoph0bic sermons by day and then have ana1 s e x with altar
boys by night. What makes THEM a moral authority?? Hmmmm????
Hey you little right-wing homophobic hypocrites at The Rebelution! Guess what?? The LGBTQ community has as much of a right to marry whoever they want as anyone else. How DARE you people try to treat LGBTQ-Americans like second class citizens!! His Grace President Obama has acted to protect the right of LGBTQ Americans to marry whoever they want and the REAL American people applaud him for it!
We’re here! We’re queer! Get used to it!
Dear Young Democrat, due to the fact that you have posted even more explicitly inappropriate content and have resorted to name-calling and abusive language, I have decided to ban you. I will leave this comment and the other comment below (even though you are demonstrating an ungracious and unkind spirit) but have removed the comments in which you posted disturbing images, sexual content, and cursing.
You have had multiple chances to interact with us respectfully and appropriately and you have not done that in any sense of the words. I just took a moment to pray for you now and I do hope that you will stop holding onto the hate that you have.
In Christ,
Jaquelle
Here’s a little poem I found a long time ago that, for some reason, came to mind today. It’s called “My Friend”:
“My friend, I stand in judgment now,
And feel that you’re to blame somehow.
While on this earth I walked with you day by day
And never did you point the way.
You knew the LORD in truth and glory
But never did you tell the story.
My knowledge then was very dim –
You could have led me safe to Him.
Though we lived together here on earth,
You never told me of your second birth.
And now I stand this day condemned
Because you failed to mention Him.
You taught me many things, that’s true,
I called you “friend” and trusted you,
But now I learned, it’s too late –
You could have kept me from this fate.
We walked by day and talked by night,
And you showed me not the light.
You let me live, love and die,
And all the while you knew I’d never live on high.
Yes, I called you “friend” in life,
And trusted you in joy and strife.
Yet in coming to this end:
I see you really weren’t my friend.”
~Chris Mooney
Let me answer this as a Christian and as a learning programmer. What you let in (input) will determine what you let out (output). Please don’t misread this to say your environment makes you what you are. What I mean is filter everything though the truth. Here is a quote from Jesus to put things into perspective, “… I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” -John 14:6 (part)
You may ask, “What does that have to do with anything?”
In short, the truth put in perspective is motivational.
That’s a great method for keeping your goals! What motivation do you find to pursue those goals in the first place, though?
Exactly right, Josiah. It’s the same with hearing news or a pastor’s sermon; no matter who they are, you should always run it by God’s Word to see how things match up.
Are you a computer programmer?
I am currently studying for in a one year certificate course (web development) via Liberty University’s online program. Additionally, your exactly right about putting everyone though a biblical filter. Often people sound very convincing, but their words don’t line up with what is truly possible (not conflicting with the Bible). So, be very careful to weigh the truth values of their speech as well as their actions.
The only difference is that a resolution implies a hard and fast decision, and a goal implies something that you set out to achieve. hmm… are these words that different?
Oh, neat! I’m doing CSS, but not nearly in your level.
I’m naturally analytical, so not accepting things as truth as soon as I read or hear something comes naturally for me. But I know somebody (at least one) who does not.
Exactly right: if their actions don’t line up with their talk, that’s an extra reason to be analytical of their words.