3 Easy Questions for a Better Year
It’s New Year’s Eve and the air is thick with heavy reflection and resolutions. I’d like to recommend an easier, simpler, and potentially more powerful path of reflection and resolve: 3 questions that lead you to 3 concrete answers/resolutions for a new year that’s better than last year.
Please take only 15 minutes to ponder these questions, the answers will be felt quickly. If you overthink this you’ll probably miss what’s most important. And, pick only 1 answer/resolution for each question. I mean, pick lots of answers if you want, but most people will see more progress focusing on 3 resolutions instead of 15.
1. What Do I Want to Stop Doing?
What’s the #1 thing you did this year (or that you’ve been doing your entire life) that you want to stop doing (and that the Lord wants you to stop doing)? Identify this thing, then, by the power of God’s grace, devote this next year to stop doing this thing/habit. Feed something, and it grows. Starve something, and it dies. Pick what you need to starve.
2. What Do I Want to Start Doing?
What’s the #1 thing you want to start doing this year? Notice I say “want” not “should.” Desire runs deeper than shoulds, these questions aim for your desires. Identify the biggest opportunity in front of you, and seize this new thing/habit/way of being in the new year. You’ve already picked what you want to starve, here you’re choosing want you want to feed and fuel and habituate. Just ask God: “God, what are you calling me to start doing this year?”
3. What Do I Want to Keep Doing?
What’s the thing you did this past year that proved most Life-giving, fruitful, healthy, beneficial? This is something you loved from this year that you really want to keep doing. Oftentimes this “keep doing” thing will be your “start doing” thing from the previous year (spend more time with my best friend, play tennis weekly, read my Bible 5 days a week, etc). Then, after two years of being part of your life it’s no longer a conscious resolution, it’s just an automatic part of who you are and what you do.
Conclusion
You’re under zero pressure to follow our American tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions. But we are all called to reflect, be self aware, and grow. On this New Year’s Eve, be you and do what God is calling you to do. If you’re overwhelmed about this or if you are overdoing this, I believe this 3-fold framework will help you. Just take a few minutes to think and pray through these 3 questions. Pick just 1 answer for each question, for a total of 3 concrete resolutions you can practice and progress in. Then, walk with God daily and enjoy practicing your stopping, starting, and keeping.