Resolve. It's time for your execution

Resolution: Resolving to do things differently. Resolving to stop doing something and start

doing another. At the end of the day, a resolution is just a thought. It's all in your head. It's a "what if?" It's a hope. The cold, hard truth is, resolving to do something can end up being nothing more than an idea. We have to execute. That's a drastic sounding word isn't it? Execution.Perhaps it needs to convey the idea that something else has to die in order for the new to live. Many counselors will tell you in order to break a bad habit, you have to replace it with something else. So, instead of going outside after dinner to smoke, you take a walk around the block. You kill the bad by doing something positive. Simply not doing the bad just leaves you thinking about it. It's all in the doing of the new thing. The good thing. As I set out to plan for the New Year I listened to a goal setting/planning webinar. It had some great tips and if you missed these during your resolution planning for last year, you might want to kick these around: 1. Choose one or two things that would REALLY change your life. It's easy to focus on things like losing weight, not smoking, saving money, and getting organized. These are all external things. We also need to work on improving relationships, what new things we want to learn, if we're using our God-given gifts, and how to grow in our faith. Choose one physical thing and one soul/internal thing to make as priorities so you don't get overwhelmed. 2. Get specific "This year, I'm going to read the Bible more!" That is a terrible resolution. Too vague. "This year I'm going to read the whole Bible using a process on This Website.com." Better, but still needs improvement. The more numbers and tracking we can put to our goals the more likely we'll succeed. "I'm going to join a weekly Bible study that requires homework. I'll work on my homework every weekday from 6-6:30 a.m. I plan to study at least 4 books of the Bible this year." Now that's a goal! 3. Prepare to be uncomfortable If you want to have change, you're probably going to have to get uncomfortable. Life and career coach Michael Hyatt says, "If your dreams are inside your comfort zone, they’re NOT really dreams.” Being in what he calls the "Discomfort Zone" is "where the answers to your prayers happen." Achieving things you haven't achieved before, challenging yourself, and wanting to be different and do different will require different. As you make plans, it's very likely you'll have your doubts, feel a little fear and uncertainty - this is totally normal. As you venture out into this new year, don't forget to push yourself in your spiritual walk. Figure out how you get closer to God, how you hear Jesus throughout your day, how you live out his commands, and how you love better. Now go and do it. Execute!