New Year: Unrealistic Expectations

By Devin Dummel

Well, it’s been 48 hours or so, how are you holding up?  Are you still going strong or has your will begun to waver?  If you’re starting to feel the pressure or the struggle just know you are not alone.  We’ve all been there.   Everyone who has ever made a “New Year’s Resolution” knows what I’m talking about.

The changes that we want to make – the things that we want to do differently this year – are well intentioned decisions.  But it seems no matter how lofty the ideal or goal actually achieving it can be almost impossible.  Under the weight of maintaining the discipline to meet our highest of hopes for the New Year we crumble under the pressure.

Did you know that 25% of people who make New Year’s Resolutions abandon them after the first week?  After one month nearly 40% have lost sight of their goals.  And once you reach the sixth month less than half the people who set goals for this year remain on track to meet those same goals.  In the end, less than 10% of people achieve their goals for the New Year.

When you hear those statistics, it’s hard not to think to yourself “What’s the point?”  If only a small percentage accomplish what they set out to do, why even try? 

The problem with New Year’s Resolutions is not the goals themselves.  The problem is not the type of people who are trying to better themselves and their environments.  The real problem appears when unrealistic expectations are attached to an unrealistic plan.   The good habits that you are trying to form are just proving to be unsustainable at the pace and the structure in which you are trying to achieve them.

There are all type of resolutions that you could make this year: self improvement or education related resolutions, weight related resolutions, money related resolutions, relationship related resolutions, etc.  The list could go on and on.  But there is one type of resolution that we will try to help you make a realistic plan to achieve this year:  your spiritual resolution.

Like many other areas in our life we often allow our spiritual life to get run down and depleted.  Many of us just keep going through the motions, even when our spiritual tank is running on “E”.  Spiritual emptiness is a universal issue, even for people who are at church every Sunday.  Followers of Jesus can be spiritually empty even though it appears that nothing is wrong.

Of all the things you could try and work on this year, your spiritual life is the most important.  I know that when I don’t connect with God on a regular basis, I run out of passion and my life becomes very spiritually empty.  And ultimately I become a different person, living for myself and from the pressures around me; instead of living for God and being the person He made me to be.

This month, we will discuss some great ways to stay connected to God and maintain your spiritual resolution this year.  But before we go any further, we want to encourage you to make sure that you keep realistic expectations.  Figure out your own spiritual rhythm and set aside time for God that makes sense in your life.  Allow these natural times to fill you back up with more of God and relieve you of the other pressures in your life.  Start simple and keep your resolution realistic.