How to Change Your Life Without New Year's Resolutions

 

by Barbara Latta

New Year’s resolutions can build stress. We feel pressured to make them, then condemned by our own minds when we don’t complete any of these tasks.

A tradition started by a lot of people has been to choose a word for the year to focus on. This habit releases us from the stress of attempting unobtainable goals and instead gives our minds a daily dose of health to meditate upon. Once we do this, we can find that we can change our lives without New Year’s Resolutions.

The word the Lord put on my heart this year is organize. He brought to my mind the way Jesus completed His ministry. The Son of God worked in an orderly fashion. On two recorded occasions, He fed the multitudes. Before food distribution He commanded the people to sit down in groups while the disciples passed out bread and fish. The crowd didn’t push, shove, or grab for the food.

He sent His disciples into nearby towns two by two with instructions of how they were to minister to people. They didn’t just haphazardly walk around without a plan.

God created the world with order and organization. He completed the universe step by step, day by day, until everything fit together with harmony.

He breathed His life into humanity and put into us the desire to plan and organize. While everyone doesn’t live their lives in an orderly fashion, the innate need for orderliness still lies within. This is why when we live in disorder we can find ourselves frustrated and mentally exhausted.

For God is not the author of confusion but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33 NKJV)

Organization expert Peter Walsh, author of Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight states that clutter could be preventing us from reaching our goals. “Clutter is anything that gets between you and the life you want to be living…that could be physical stuff …or any of those mental or emotional things that cripple you or put a hurdle between you and your goals…if you focus on the stuff you will never get organized because it’s not about the stuff.”

As Peter Walsh stated, we don’t need to focus on the stuff. Instead, we can follow God’s pattern of thinking.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

The world tells us we need stuff to be happy. Marketing targets human desires. The first step toward organization and orderliness is with our minds not our possessions.  

If we allow the Lord to direct our steps toward His desires instead of our own, we will have the ability to release emotional attachments to things that have no purpose for our lives. Jesus put His identity into us at salvation. This means we have the same mind He has but we must implement what He gave us to live in His accomplishments.

I haven’t always been successful at keeping my word for the year before my mind. But this year I plan to print the word and the Scripture of 1 Corinthians 14:33 and place on my bulletin board above my computer.

What is your focus for 2023? If you have a word or Scripture for this year, please feel free to share your plan with us.

How to change your life without New Year’s Resolutions (click to tweet)