6 min 50 sec: app reading time

December 30, 2024

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2024? 

Dear Friend:

Some of us have arrived to the last day of 2024. 

Many of our friends and loved ones went to their rest this past year.

Today is a day of mixed emotions as we step into the threshold of a new year and unknown circumstances beyond the celebratory welcome around the world.

For me, it's a day of reflection, gratitude, and commitment to continuing to become my best self in 2025. 

Each December, I outline my goals and objectives for the following year while clearly understanding that many of them will not be accomplished. I believe in the tension of looking forward to the future while holding on firmly to the evolving experience of my "now" every day. 

Some of my longings for 2024 were not fulfilled, while other unplanned events took center stage.

Today, I want you to do something that may feel useless.

I want you to look back at 2024 with me and reflect for a few minutes.

The past often carries treasures that get buried in our furious attempts to move on and get things done.

I want you to think back to January 1, 2024.

What was in your mind then? Do you remember?

I am sure, like most people, you made resolutions. Oh, yeah... everyone talks about resolutions in January!

Can you remember 2 or 3 resolutions you made in January 2024?

What happened?

Now, looking back at 2024, I invite you to take step 1:

See if you can celebrate every single one of your successes, no matter how small.

If you chose to lose weight, and you lost a couple pounds this year, celebrate! If you resolved to read one book a week and read only one, celebrate! If you chose to watch less TV and actually cut down on it, celebrate. If you decided to learn a new language and you caught a few words you didn't know before, celebrate. If you wanted to get married, and at least you joined a social event and opened up to the possibility of meeting your mate, celebrate. If you wanted to eat healthier, you cut down on carbs and increased your greenies, celebrate. If you wanted to resolve that nagging family conflict and at least you made peace in your mind with the fact that the people who reject reconciliation with you are not your enemies but are battling their own demons, their own shadow, celebrate!

Tally up all of your wins.

This is the fun part.

It might feel like bragging but don’t think of it that way.

Celebrating your little wins is the fuel that will keep you moving forward and teach you valuable lessons to implement growth steps in 2025.

Step 2 is harder. Look at what you purposed to accomplish way back in January 2024 and check the aspects where you fell short.

This requires authenticity and vulnerability.

Did you want to break your addiction to your screen and keep your eyes on the real world or the road while driving and not the screen? If you are still addicted to it, dismissing it or pretending it was an impulsive move in 2024 won't make you better.

Ask yourself. Why did your resolution fail?

Perhaps being addicted to your screen or mobile device is actually toxic to your relationships and lifestyle. Even dangerous if texting and driving.

Did you resolve to go to the gym at least three times a week but let go after the first three weeks of January? Why? What stopped you from doing it? Was it a poor decision to go early in the morning when you didn't feel like waking up? Or perhaps the pressure of work? Would adjusting your going to the gym according to a different schedule help? Creativity helps, especially if you are a mom transporting kids to school and activities. 

Do you catch what I am trying to say?

Sometimes, resolutions fail, not because they are irrelevant but because the planning is poor, the priorities are not in place, and you lack the creative flexibility to fit those resolutions into your busy life. I know I get to read half of my books with "real books" (my first love) and the other half audio while I drive. Flexibility has been an adaption skill for me. 

Did you set your mind in January 2024 to spend more time with your kids and your wife and invest more time in your relationships with family close by and far away, and now you realize none of it happened? Was it because you don't care or your resolutions lacked appropiate planning to execute them?

If you can see where you fell short, then you will be ready to move to step 3.

Step 3 is to review your 2025 resolutions and determine "HOW" to accomplish a resolution in advance. 

Very often, resolutions don't fail because they are bad ones but because the planning to implement them is careless. You make a resolution impulsively and don't spend enough time planning a reachable, reasonable goal.

I have some ideas to motivate your journey in 2025.

First, did you have a very clear purpose for a resolution? 

This is the "WHY" of a resolution.

If the "why" is not strong enough, you will lack the motivation to journey through the "how," and the purpose will fail.

Second, how specific and honest are you willing to be with your "WHY"?

You may seriously question the "why" of your resolution and conclude it's driven by ego, the impulse to show off or cover up shame. Making a resolution to be "debt-free" is excellent!

But then, "why"? Is it so you can free up funds to help an organization or save for emergencies?

The more precise you can answer this question, the better your planning to become debt-free will be. If it's just to prove something to people, most likely, you will either fail or, if you succeed, it will go to your head, and it will feed your ego and pride.

Third, can you visualize yourself moving toward your purpose through the steps you are setting up?

This means seeing yourself, in your mind, like in a movie, doing all the things that cause you discomfort or pain now or cause you to run out of breath and quit? Reflect on the journey based on your past experience.

You need to see it—really see it—not just pretend and make a goal or a resolution.

A good purpose needs clarity as motion in advance—so real that it feels like a memory—so it's sealed in your psyche as a thought, only it hasn’t happened yet.

Fourth, how realistic is your plan?

A purpose will not be fulfilled without a realistic plan to accomplish it. Wishes are not strategies.

Deciding to read a book a week in 2025 is excellent!

How realistic is such a purpose considering your reading speed and past history reading books?

Losing 20 pounds in 2025 is a great purpose.

How realistic are your plans to lose weight? Fasting for a week will debilitate you if you don't plan it carefully. Eating less food is poor planning. Talk to someone who knows about nutrition and find out what can keep you satisfied, hunger-wise, while you shift your diet to food that will help you lose weight. Weight loss is 45% the kind of food you eat along with exercise, time you eat, sleep, and state of mind. Research proves that people eat more junk food and unhealthy sweets when under stress or anxious.

You need to create realistic daily actions to reach your purpose.

Fifth, start small. Small successes breed progressive accomplishments.

I remember the first time I stepped into a gym years ago. Like everyone else, I wanted to lift weights. It took me as much time to learn that I needed to take small steps under the coaching of a trainer as it did to lift heavier weights.

Slowing down your addiction to sports events on TV that disrupt your relationships begins with passing over one single event and giving priority to your relationship. One time begins the process. Running a marathon starts with one step. Observe what happens when you take one small step. What changes? How do you feel?

If you resolve to go back to church in 2025. Instead of a blank resolution, plan to find a church that feeds you spiritually and go one time. See how it feels. Process the event. That step matters.

Your confidence builds with every small step.

I meet so many people who share with me resolutions they made in the past. They become frustrated by saying, "I wasn't doing enough, and I quit."

My message to you is: "You are doing enough if you take one step in the right direction."

Sixth and last, negative thoughts will kill your resolutions over and over.

Progress takes time.

I know how easy it is to watch other people who are good with their finances and spiritually inspiring. You assume that it happened overnight, that they have better genetics, and that they never got hurt or sick. That’s bogus. Spiritual giants that inspire me have usually gone through profound suffering and the "dark night of the soul." They just don't tell people about it. 

A glorious family photo on social media, such as Instagram, is easy. However, it doesn't mean your family is a nest of love and grace. 

I want to finish with a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. I love the way she depicts the "myth of arrivals," the small successes of life. I encourage you to celebrate the "arrivals" of your life in 2025 and treasure them with joy! 

Unresolution

Because after all these years

of focusing on the goal as if

happiness is a thing I attain

or a place I might finally reach,

now, I thrill when I see through

the myth of arrivals.

I see where I have grasped

and clutched and clawed

and scrabbled to be somewhere

not where I am. Not that I regret it.

The memory of grabbing

helps me feel how beautiful it is

each time the hand opens

like a morning to what is here,

opens as if the opening itself

is what I am here to do.

Happy New Year, and may God's presence guide you and your loved ones in 2025.

With you on your journey,

Pastor Harold