Resolutions

How often do our New Year’s Resolutions feel like echoes from years past? That instead of walking down life’s road we find ourselves stuck on a treadmill, expending just as much effort, but nonetheless going nowhere. What is it that causes our New Year resolutions to falter and any change to be unsustainable?

The key to this lies in viewing the action required as more than just change but rather transformation. Essentially change is something that can return to how it was before. Take ice, it’s cold, hard and frozen. Yet it can be melted to become water. This water can be boiled to become steam, which after evaporation becomes rain. The rain comes down and we have water again which we can drink, freeze or boil. Transformation on the other hand is more like a bunch of grapes. We can stomp on them for a long time; keep the juice for a while before we finally have wine. This wine can never become grapes again. That is transformation. It cannot be undone.

Paul the Apostle encourages us not to “be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of your mind .“(Romans 12:2) We are not to be “of” the world, conforming to its mould by taking on worldly rationale and values. To see our lives transformed, we must change our thinking to effect change in our actions. What thoughts we allow to take root in our mind is a choice and will determine our actions and ultimately our destiny. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)

“When you sow a thought you reap an action, sow an action you reap a habit, sow a habit you reap a character, sow a character you reap a destiny.” (anon)

Words and thoughts are the fuel that the brain uses to reproduce. However successful or unsuccessful we will be is undeniably linked to the words and beliefs we tell ourselves. William James, a psychologist said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.” Our mind is a powerful thing and needs to work for us and not against us.

So I guess, I’m adding watching about my thinking to my Resolution list this year!