My Principles for Setting Goals for the New Year

I have made New Year’s resolutions in the past, but after many experiences of setting over-zealous and unfocused  resolutions, I have learned a few helpful guidelines for creating goals that will stick around past the end of January.   

1.      Pray over your goals.  When you sit down with your pen and paper to write out your goals, I would encourage you to pray over them.  Listen to hear and examine to see if the goals you want to focus on are in line with God’s will for you.  Our goals should make us more available to His presence and working in our lives. 

2.      Set realistic goals.  I remember one New Year setting a goal that I was going to exercise every day.  For some that might not sound so unrealistic, but keep in mind that at this point I was doing good if I got out and jogged once every two weeks.  Well, you can guess how long that lasted.  First off, the success of this goal was defined as “every day” when I didn’t even have the habit built up yet.  All I was doing was setting myself up for failure.  A more realistic goal would have been to exercise at least 3 times a week (and forgive myself if I only got 2 in, keeping at it). 

3.      Keep your goals simple (numerically).  I’m a simple girl at heart.  I don’t like a lot of clutter, I don’t like having too many songs on my iPod, and I don’t like juggling a lot of things on my plate at once.  I’ve found that I thrive when I have just a few things to focus on, including goals I want to work towards.  This is another helpful tidbit learned after several well-intentioned lists of 8-10 goals that only made me feel crazy and discouraged when I couldn’t master all of them at once.  Did I forget I was human? 

4.      Aim for grace-filled consistency, not perfection. Many times, the reason we end up failing at our goals is because we aim for the wrong target.  We aim for perfection, when what we ought to be aiming for is something I like to call grace-filled consistency.  Perfection says that we have to get it right every single time.  Hello! This is impossible and leads only to discouragement and eventually, giving up.  On the other hand, grace-filled consistency says to do your best and when you mess up (or eat that second or third donut you said you weren’t going to have), because you will, forgive yourself and keep going.  Covering our resolves in grace is what allows us to not give up and continue to steadily form consistent habit in our lives. I am all about grace these days.  By nature, I am prone to become discouraged, immobilized, or just give up when I don’t meet the expectations I have set in my mind for myself – often times, I confess, due to my own laziness or tendency to become distracted by less important things.  However, even in this, I have to accept God’s grace in my life, allowing it to wash over me, and continue to pursue my goals. The key is to aim towards developing a habit of consistency, not perfectionism.

With these principles in mind, here are my goals/resolutions that I have set for 2012.

Goals for 2012

• Be more active - Exercise at least 3 times a week and lose baby weight by summer time.
• Continue establishing and developing the habit of regular morning, evening, and weekly routines that I began last year in order to continue growing in personal discipline and maintaining a peaceful home. (I realize that I will have to restructure this some when the baby arrives).
• Finish reading the Bible all the way through. (I began last year and will finish it out this year).
• Memorize two Scripture verses a month.

I think these are simple and attainable, challenging me in new areas but also building on new habits that began last year as well.  I also plan on setting one goal or task a month that I want to complete.  My goal for January is to have the nursery set up and organized by the end of the month.

What about you? Have you made any resolutions for this upcoming year?