Every year most of the world will make a New Year's Resolution as a fresh start. A time to change everything that is not working using the same strategy as the year before.
New Year's Resolutions are nothing more than good intentions for most that may work for a few days or more but eventually die out. There is no new execution plan, just pushing away the old and focusing on something new, but soon returning to the old behavioral patterns.
Every day, every moment is an opportunity to have a New Year's Resolution. Still, most people will not resolve unless there is a significant event tied to the resolution's need.
Not everyone will wait for New Year's Eve to resolve. Hitting rock bottom is a significant event that will drive a New Year's Resolution type situation, not out of excitement but desperation. We become so desperate for a change that we are willing to do anything to make change happen no matter what time or day of the year.
The New Year's Resolution and hitting rock bottom are significant life events that drive us to want to change but fail most of the time because we don't have the tools to make the kind of change we desire.
Both scenarios involve making drastic lifestyle-altering action, which is often challenging because our behaviors' driving force addresses symptoms, not the real issues.
Essentially we are denying the underlying causes of what drives us to make a significant change, only focusing on the change we are focused on most. If we address the causes, we change our symptoms and the problems that continue to create other behaviors.
We don't realize we are focusing on a false god for us, and it controls us. We think that quitting a behavior removes the power it has over us, but the denial of the false god continues to have power over us even though we think we have power.
Even good habits turn into unhealthy control over us because we make it a false god, making it a requirement to be fulfilled.
It is not until we realize that we are powerless to control what we desire to control and that our attempt to manage what we want to control is hurting us in other ways. Our power needs to go elsewhere beyond this earth, to God.
What is in us to do the wrong thing exists, and we need to acknowledge that it is a part of us which we hide in our past when we need to acknowledge it, letting us give it to God, freeing us to accept ourselves, and move forward under His care.
When we come out of denial, we open the door to have New Year's Resolutions at any time of the year, which we give to God, freeing us to become healthy people who experience serenity, no matter what ales us.
Love God, love people