Thinking of New Years

Do you make New Year's resolutions?  Most people do. In fact, last year the number one New Year's resolution was overwhelmingly weight loss, second was getting organized.

Let's talk about resolutions for a moment, shall we?

Often our New Year's resolutions look like this graphic.  Vague wish-list ideas of how to be a better person.  Let's take "Stop smoking" for example.  How does one do that?  What's the next step?  How about "Pay credit card debt?"  What does that mean?  Pay it all at once?  Pay it a penny at a time?  What about "Get organized?" (I love the mis-spelling, by the way...)  Organize what?  Clothes?  Car?  Dishes?

Where am I going with this?  Instead of making vague resolutions that you may or may not keep, this year set goals - real life, achievable goals.  

How?  Here's how!

Instead of making the vague resolution to "lose weight," set a specific goal to "lose 10 pounds by April 1," or "lose 25 pounds by August 5." Then determine a plan to follow through such as "cut out 500 calories each day; burn off 500 calories each day."    

Instead of making the vague resolution to "pay off debt," determine to save the money you spend on coffee shop coffee drinks and brew your own at home.  Or make one week a month a "necessities only" week, buying nothing other than what is absolutely necessary - the left over cash goes directly toward your debt.

Instead of making the vague resolution to "get organized," set the specific goal to "organize the kitchen drawers," "be creative with storage in the linen closet," and "purge my closet and donate clothes that don't fit or are out of fashion."

Setting specific goals helps you visualize the end result.  But don't stop there. Once you've set specific goals, go back and write in each "next action" needed to see the thing through to completion.  Lists help you visualize the individual steps ahead, and give you an indicator of progress.  Individual specific steps are easier to manage and complete than vague project titles.


Starting January 1, I am starting a January Organize-a-thon, where we will sift through the piles, bins and corners of our homes and get ourselves organized for the new year.  We'll take it step by step and room by room.  In the end, we'll have organized living spaces, extra room for storage, and we'll have purged the unnecessary things from our lives.

Will you join me?  What areas do you want to work on?  Leave a comment about the area(s) you need help with and I'll address them specifically!  

I can't wait to get started!  It's going to be fantastic!

Only By His Grace,

Billie

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