I think I may have been looking at this the wrong way. I read something this morning that got me thinking about the difference between goals and resolutions. The biggest difference is you achieve a goal and you keep a resolution. Understanding the difference will change how you approach the situation.
Some objectives are better characterized as resolutions, others, as goals. "Run in a marathon" or "Become fluent in Spanish" is a goal. It’s specific. It’s easy to tell when it has been achieved. Once you’ve done it, you’ve done it! "Write daily" or "Stop gossiping," or "Exercise" is better cast as a resolution. You won’t wake up one morning and find that you’ve achieved it. It’s something that you have to resolve to do, every day, forever. You’ll never be done with it.
It can be easy to get discouraged when you’re trying to hit a goal. What if it takes longer than you expected? What if it’s harder than you expected? And what happens once you’ve reached your goal? Say you’ve run the marathon. What now – do you stop exercising? Do you set a new goal?
With resolutions, the expectations are different and being discouraged can come easier and more frequent. Each day, I try to live up to my resolutions. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail. To not get discouraged I need to see each day as a clean slate and a fresh opportunity. I never expect to be done with my resolutions, so I try not to get discouraged when they stay challenging. Which they do.
For example, I made a resolution to practice an attitude of gratitude. Each day I have to re-commit to this resolution. It takes a lot of self-discipline to keep a resolution and to continue to commit day after day especially in the face of adversity or failure. I had a bad day yesterday. It is extremely difficult to be grateful all day when my day was consumed with laundry and errands and events at kids’ schools. So I failed. No problem. Today, I have a clean slate and the opportunity to improve.
What got me thinking about this is my resolution to blog. My mindset was that of it being a goal. I found myself feeling frustrated that I wasn’t achieving anything. There was no end. I was feeling discouraged. But now I have shifted my mindset. Writing needs to be a resolution for me. It needs to be something without end that I commit to accomplish each day.
Current resolutions - attitude of gratitude, blogging, exercise, weight control
Current goals - read Bible, learn to StandUp Paddleboard, take a photography class
well, you certainly don't need to lose more weight skinny! on a more serious note, i like how you've differentiated between these 2 things. this may or may not be similar, but there are several "situations" in my life (that mainly have to do w/ dealing w/ special needs) that i try soooooo hard to overcome. and then one day i arrive. and i think i'm here, i'm finally here. and i hope i never have another negative tho't or criticism or doubt...but some part of me just knows that this pollyanna day won't necessarily stretch into next month or next week or sadly, sometimes even into tomorrow. there are circumstances in life we have to re-apply discipline and will and mind to each and every day. its tough. but yes scarlett, its nice to know that we do get another day and chance in tomorrow. and hopefully the bad days number less and less as we grow to absorb more of god in all things. :)
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