I have decided that I am going to create Christmas resolutions instead of New Year’s resolutions. I want my resolutions to be spiritually based in 2010. Maybe that will help me stick to them longer! All kidding aside, I am tired of creating resolutions that sound good over a cocktail during a New Year’s Eve party but don’t really help increase meaning in my life. Most of my resolutions always seem to be ego driven. If I am honest, losing twenty pounds has nothing to do with increasing meaning in my life but is instead about me wanting to get compliments from others or to be judged better by them. What is funny is that I am catering to what I think that others will feel when they see me. Most people are too busy thinking the same way that I was notice any changes that I make.
So I am setting a theme that all my resolutions will help facilitate spiritual growth. I may still try to lose weight but only because that accomplishment will help me achieve my goal to increase more energy for pursuing spiritual activities. Using Christmas as the starting point provides extra incentive to keep my goals spiritual. In essence I am trying to allow God to be born more fully into my life. I have no false illusions of being on the same level as Jesus but I can use his birth as a symbol to remind me to allow God to incarnate within my all aspects of my life.
There is really no need to wait until New Year’s to start making resolutions. So today, I am starting to define my Christmas resolutions. I could just start achieving my resolutions right now but I want to allow time for me to sit with the resolutions and ensure that the resolutions will help deepen my spirituality. I will offer my resolutions up to God as part of my prayer time so that I can be sure that I am moving forward based on a sincere desire for increased spirituality instead of an ego driven pleasure trip.
This year I am also going to organize my resolutions differently. I am going to create a spiritual growth plan. The resolutions will represent activities that I feel are necessary to facilitate spiritual growth in my life. On New Year’s Eve, I will certainly enjoy talk about my resolutions but hopefully my conversation will be slightly more spirit filled than last year.
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It sounds like Hugh is onto something new in the New Year’s resolutions department . He’s making his spiritual growth foremost in his life and he’s doing it a Christmas time.
I like the emphasis on creating resolutions based on a theme (spirituality). Christmas as a motivating symbol will probably be more motivating than New Year’s Eve.
The story of birth of Christ , regardless of your religious faith, seems to be a “deeper” symbol than the beginning of a new year. Of course, we are not sure if December 25 is really the birth date of Jesus. To me, that is not important because the incarnational nature of the story still motivates me more than the a cultural holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I still love New Year’s eve and the excuse to reset all of my goals.
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