Setting goals or resolutions has never been my favorite part of a New Year. It’s setting myself up for failure and as a perfectionist, coping with failure is top of my “Don’t Do This” list. So this year I’m doing it different.

Setting goals is about having something measurable that you can pat yourself on the back when you proudly check done. Beating our will into submission, we begin but at the first whiff of skipping a day or two towards our measurable goal, we wallow in disappointment never picking back up where we left off.

I have a shameful secret. I’m not a great reader. I enjoy reading. I just don’t enjoy books. I’m surrounded by do good-ers who effortlessly throw out authors and titles of their last read like it was a great glass of wine they had with dinner last night. I nod my head like I fit in but stay suspiciously quiet. (the lack of words makes you appear wise)

Every year with the New Year, I think I should set a goal to read more books. By the end of the year, I’m wondering if I can count The Cat in the Hat, Lil Cannot Miss, and Guess How Much I Love You. Don’t be deceived. I do read every day but typically its at a second grade level.

Instead of setting myself up for another embarrassing defeat, I am making a new kind of resolution this year. It is measurable and attainable and it will get me reading more. But it takes a different approach.

One of my goals this year is to discover 3 topics that I enjoy reading about. I mean, I can’t put down the book. Who else can tell me what lights my soul on fire but me. I believe if it does it will add energy to every area of my life.

I discovered this when I read a 5th grade book on Albert Einstein this year. I was riveted by his life and relativity theory. I read it several times and talked about it to everyone I know. You could call me geek cause I didn’t care. My desire to know more was far greater than what other’s thought or what had to be put aside to know more.

Maybe for you its organizational behavior, apologetics, music theory, astronomy, child rearing, party planning, gardening… the greatness is that you decide.

This can be applied to many types of goals to set you up for success. Maybe you need to develop a list of 15 foods that are healthy which you love. Figure out how to eat them instead of unhealthy choices. Eat till you are full, just the right foods, and see if you have better success with weight loss goals.

Life isn’t about doing what we want all the time. But maybe if we did what we want more often, doing what we shouldn’t would feel a little easier.

Prov 29:18 “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.”
OR
Find revelation, find restraint and be happy!