How to get things done without making New Year’s resolutions
Have you ever noticed that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly by? Birthdays come quicker, and Lord knows it was just summer and now it's time to take out winter clothes and prepare for the holidays once again! Time doesn't stand still for anyone, no matter who you are, or how badly you just need a minute to breathe. Then the next thing you know, you look up and all of the sudden you look back to when you were in high school and it's been just about 20 years since you've graduated! Where did the time go anyway?
The years keep steadily moving faster and faster, as yet another New Year's approaches, and of course people must keep tradition of making our fabulously unattainable resolutions. Too honest? The truth hurts sometimes. In all reality, people should just decide to put on a life of discipline instead of making resolutions that they are apt to lose by the wayside of life. Good intentions are fabulous, but unless you decide to make different choices in your life day to day, your life will never be given the opportunity to change for good, much less keep a resolution that you claim you are serious about this time.
What are some of the real resolutions you might decide to do in your life that would actually work to benefit your life instead of sapping your energy and life out from under you coupled with that hint of failure of unmet expectations of yourself if you find that you haven't stuck to your resolutions? What if your life has been secretly filled with unforgiveness, and you have been living a wretched, bitter life pointing your finger in blame at another person for what they did to you and how they have hurt you? Do you ever resolve to have greater faith, or live in forgiveness toward others, or maybe just resolve to be kind and more patient with others who don't do the job the way you thought it should be done.
For a split second in time when you reach the top of a rollercoaster ride, you can actually lose yourself in the moment and feel as though you are sitting on top of the world! You even find yourself fearlessly raising your arms high above your head so that the gentle breeze can flow through your fingers.
Then without warning you feel a sudden jerk on the car where you are seated. Reaching out for dear life, and just in the nick of time, you grab tightly onto the bar that holds you from falling out of the car as you begin to tip forward over the top of that enormously high hill. Then passing the point of no return, you descend rapidly, plummeting down the first drop of the great coaster!
You've ridden this ride before and you think that you know what lies up ahead, but somehow the tracks are not the same this time around and you have no idea what lies beyond this second for you. Fear and panic set in as you scream out loud for someone to stop the ride, but nobody hears you. Instead, your ride whirls on.
It's dark, then light, then you're up high and all of the sudden you're down low again! Your stomach is in your throat, and all you want to do is get off of the ride! Yet it won't stop and there doesn't appear to be any end in sight! All at once everything goes dark, and you close your eyes tight hoping and praying that it will stop.
When you feel the ride slowing down, you open your eyes to see that the cars are pulling underneath the canopy where you initially got onto the ride. You see that there is an exit opposite the side that you got on. Will you get off of the ride this time, or will you miss it again? Even though it looks simple to get on and get off of this roller coaster, you still have to know how to get the coaster to come to a complete stop. Or you will just continue to pass the exit by and wind up riding over and over again.
Is there a familiar ring to this story within your own life? Have you ever been on the ride of your life and not been able to find a way off of it? Scared and panicked, have you made choices that you never should have made, but felt helpless to stop? Nobody seems to hear you when you scream out that you want to get off, but you know deep in your heart that if you could get the ride to stop, you would definitely get off!
The ride never really comes to an end on this roller coaster of life until people take the time to learn how to put on the brakes and bring it to a complete halt. How do you do that? By discovering why you are the way that you are today, and by deciding to make right choices no matter how we feel.
If you make different choices, become conscious to the things that you really need to change in your life, and incorporate the discipline to make those changes possible, you will no longer need to make resolutions each year that pressure you to do something that you aren't willing to give up yet. Only resolve to do something when you are tired of being in the same place that you are, doing the same thing that you have always done, and getting the same results you've always gotten.
Most importantly, resolve to be honest with yourself, and allow yourself the opportunity to change for the rest of your life by learning how to love yourself, and others. Forgive often, live wisely, and always tell the truth. If you are able to resolve to do these things, your whole world will change and the things that you would like to be different in your life, will be! That is something that you can take to the bank! Try it and see, but if you don't try it, you may never know the blessings that you are missing out on. Resolve to live the best life you possibly can for the rest of your life, and then learn the discipline it takes to help you get there in each day that you are blessed to be given!
