Over the next few days, many will contemplate New Year’s resolutions. People will commit to exercise plans, dietary focus, reading programs, or countless other pursuits.
Gym memberships sales soar for the first few days of January. We clean out refrigerators, purchase books, sign up for classes, and acquire equipment.
However, research indicates that 90% will fail, and most of the failures will occur before the end of January. The commitments, the acquisitions, and the goals quickly dissolve into the same busy schedules of the prior year.
The problem is not lack of desire, motivation, or even commitment. It’s not a matter of trying harder. It’s not about reading the “right” self-help book – goodness knows there are plenty of those out there!
Let’s take a very different approach. It’s an approach that I use, share with others, and even share with organizations that are seeking sustainable improvement.
Identity: Focus on who you are becoming, not what you are achieving. Most resolutions identify a goal to achieve. We want to lose 20 pounds, run a marathon, read the Bible in a year, etc. Goals are great when they support an underlying purpose. When they stand alone though, they often fall apart when results are delayed, the process gets hard, or the benefit is not rewarding.
For instance, rather than losing 20 pounds, we want to be a person with a healthy lifestyle. Losing weight may be a goal, but our identity is more than weight loss. Rather than run a marathon, we want to become an athlete. Rather than read the Bible in a year, we want to be a follower of Jesus.
Clarifying identity will drive our actions, direct our goals, and change our life.
Lifestyle not commitment: Rather than focus on some unpleasant thing you must find a place for in your day, broaden your view to consider lifestyle change.
For instance, rather than forcing yourself to get up 30 minutes earlier to go to the gym and do some workout you don’t enjoy, expand the view to altering your lifestyle as you focus on identity and purpose. Maybe you walk away from an hour of scrolling on social media or watching Netflix so that you go to bed earlier. You get up earlier, feel rested, find an activity you enjoy, choose to walk more during the day, and try new things that involve eating healthier, moving more, and becoming more active.
Focus on change, not commitment.
Margin matters: Rather than inserting more stuff in our already busy lives, maybe we need to think replacement, not addition. How can we do less to get more? Doing fewer things better more consistently over time may be our key to real change. Rather than filling our schedules and trying to do more to get more, consider doing “less” to yield better results. Leaving a little margin in our lives allows us to think and take advantage of opportunities.
Those opportunities can be life impacting.
In Philippians 1:6, Paul tells Timothy that “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”.
It’s not self-help. It’s not a new resolution. Personal growth is a process of becoming and living out our identity daily. That process is relevant for every stage of life!
Doug provides professional speaking and coaching services to organizations and individuals. Whether you are looking for a speaker for your next event or a leadership coach to develop people and build a team culture, feel free to reach out to Doug at doug.strickel@gmail.com and learn more about PLUS.
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