Resolute: Baby Steps (Part 5)

Every New Year, talk of resolutions start surfacing. In this blog series, we’ll identify what it takes to make a fresh start, and to resolve to change your life permanently.

You cannot be a new man overnight. You may find redemption and have it applied in an instant. Forgiveness can be quick…. But change, my brother, takes time.

There are always exceptions. Men who quit smoking cold turkey. Men who were knocked off a horse and blinded and went from killing Christians to serving them. Yes, sometimes change is instant.

But most of the time, change is the result of consistent baby steps.

You don’t lose 100 pounds overnight. You don’t change your mindset in an instant.

You also don’t change (for the better) by accident.

As you look at the man you want to be, set your goals. Give them a realistic time frame, and then take the time to lay out the steps it will take to get there.

You want to quit drinking soda. But you keep coming back to it. So set a date. In six months, I want to be soda free.

Then make a plan for how you are going to get there. Maybe a step down to diet soda. Then maybe once a week instead of once a day.  Give each step a time frame.

You want to be a more positive person? Great. That’s a lot harder to quantize. Maybe you start by saying, “I will say ten positive things today.”

Make sure that your “gains” are marked by incremental milestones. Make sure you celebrate those milestones!

If your resolution is fuzzy, and requires you to instantly be something that you are not yet, your resolve will get weary, and you’ll never change.