A resolution looking forward means you’ve decided on a firm course of action, indicating you’ve come to a decision that will enable you to achieve something of worth to you. You will move forward with wholehearted determination. Your conviction, belief, and desire ensure your success. There is great power in this form of choosing.
A resolution looking back reflects a desire to rid yourself of a problem or matter of some controversy. Your desire is to leave something that no longer serves you in the past, with the intention of moving forward into something better. Hopefully you will know what that better future feels like. You’ve probably heard the saying that nature abhors a vacuum. Trying to leave something of yourself behind without choosing something to take its place creates such a vacuum.
When resolve becomes a habit, a way of thinking about your life and work, then your future prospects expand. You will see the world with new eyes.
There is a tradition with the coming of a new year where people resolve to improve their circumstance in some manner. It’s not a bad practice. Unfortunately you’ve probably heard that it doesn’t work for most people. Why not? Let’s say you’ve resolved to learn to play the piano. The first day of the new year you practice. But the pressures of everyday living come crashing back and you stop practicing, maybe not immediately, but you let it go.
If you want to make a change then make that change every single day. Don’t wait for a special occasion to remind you of your promise. The best way to make change happen is to make that change every day until it becomes a habit. If you wake up each morning declaring your resolve to learn to play the piano with some proficiency, then you will surely learn to play.
The most interesting thing about choices is they are always being presented to us. They may be mundane, such as what you’re going to have for dinner, but they’re always there. When you live day-to-day, then the choices you notice are probably mundane choices. But when you choose to live with a longer-range viewpoint your choices become more significant. The minor choices become much less important.
If you want to live a more interesting and fulfilling life then start by making bigger choices, the ones that you can’t accomplish quickly and easily. Challenge yourself to grow in ways you’re not sure you can grow. This will create a sense of resolve in your daily proceedings. In time, resolve will become part of your normal way of being.
When resolve becomes a habit, a way of thinking about your life and work, then your future prospects expand. You will see the world with new eyes. And, most significantly, you will see yourself as more capable, as someone who can handle new challenges, who will succeed because you always do achieve your desires. This is your resolve, to make clear choices that create the life of your choosing.
Those without such resolve are as a small boat being tossed about by the waves, afraid to come close to shore for fear of the rocks. When you find your resolve you will not worry about the waves or the rocks. You’ll study the shoreline, find your moment, and make your move landing safely upon the shoreline as you knew you would.
Don’t wait for special occasions to make your resolutions. Look for those moments in your life when the desire for something different touches you, and then resolve to find the path to your greater accomplishment. This is how choices that make a difference are made. Each and every day during the living of an interesting and enjoyable life.