New Year's Resolutions

I am generally opposed to New Year's Resolutions. Mainly because they are so cliche!! But this year I have decided to redo my Vision Board at the beginning of the year because I am at a pivotal point in many areas in my life.

So, for the sake of taking up valuable bandwidth on my blog, let's discuss the concept of 'resolutions'.

First a few definitions....

Resolution, noun:

1. the act or process of resolving something or breaking it up into its constituent parts or elements
2. a resolute quality of mind
3. a solving, as of a puzzle, or answering, as of a question; solution
4. the capability of an optical system, or other imaging system, of making clear and distinguishable the separate parts or components of an object
5. Fixedness of mind

So, here are my general complaints with most people's 'New Year's Resolutions'. People don't get specific enough. Two of the five definitions above talk about breaking things into parts. One refers to solving a puzzle and the other two involve the mind.

Let's take the most common New Year's Resolution as an example, 'lose weight'. It is a valid and important goal. The problem is, most people stop there. "My resolution is to lose weight." Well, no, based on the definition above you have stopped short of making your resolution because you have failed to break your GOAL (lose weight) down into its 'constituent parts'.

Your GOAL is to 'lose weight'. Your RESOLUTION is the steps you will take to do so. Your RESOLUTION is the state of mind needed to achieve your goal. Your RESOLUTION is the process of solving the puzzle not the completed puzzle. (For those of your that missed the analogy, the completed puzzle is your goal!!)

Let me give you another, more specific example. A good portion of my new Vision Board will focus on my spiritual development.

Spiritual development is my GOAL.

My RESOLUTION is to reach my goal through:

1. daily meditation
2. devotional study
3. continued reading
4. seeking out a group of like minded people
5. the completion of a Vision Quest before the end of the year

Is the difference clearer? I have specific things I am going to do to reach my ONE goal. It is not an all or nothing process. I have carefully chosen and examined what I want my goal to be and developed a plan to achieve it. The plan gives me more "fixedness of mind". It keeps me on track.

Don't think of the end result as the resolution. The road/path/track to the end result is the resolution. So HOW are you going to go about 'quitting smoking', HOW are you going to go about 'losing weight', HOW are you going to go about 'paying off your credit cards', HOW, HOW, HOW???