KEY SCRIPTURE. Psalm 65:11 

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

RELEVANCE

Well, we're at that time of the year that changes everyone's life through a New Year's resolution. The Lord has given us another year, but what of the resolution? 

In our context, a resolution is "a firm decision to do or not to do something." I like that definition, don't you?

The trouble is that our resolutions aren't always locked in, are they? We get to the two-week mark, and what we firmly resolved to do starts to unravel. 

The thing we considered so necessary, even vital, has dropped in importance. We ran out of resolve. What was so urgent on New Year's Day—that crucial decision that was going to revolutionise us and change our lives forever—swiftly fell from its dias.

That life-changing daily agreement with ourselves now happens every second or third day until our zest becomes a simple sentence on a page—and we find ourselves back at square one!

Why do we make NYRs every year only to find that we're rolling the same ones out the next year and the year after that?  

The problem lies in our expectations—our desire for the 'magic bullet'. We want our new resolutions answered quickly.  

When I first worked for Telstra, I was on a Pit & Pipe gang. We dug trenches with a pick and shovel. All we could pull out of the trench at one time was a shovel full. So, if someone wanted a trench of X length, and the ground was made of X, then it took so many days to dig. If the trenches were shorter or longer, it would take less or more days. It was a simple formula that is as applicable now as it ever was. 

So why can't we apply that principle to our resolutions? 

The secret to travelling a journey (which is what an NYR is) is to allow yourself a sensible time to get there. We make resolutions because something isn't working that we know could work. But our expectations don't match the timeframes. 

In his book, The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson explains the secret through the natural progression of farming, where you Plant, Cultivate, and Harvest. The trouble is that we want to go straight from planting to harvesting without too much of the boring stuff in between—the cultivation.

In cultivation, the farmer rarely sees much change, but he has faith in the process that the harvest will be exactly as expected. Therefore, he routinely continues his mundane work without fail, day in and day out. 

This mundane day-to-day aspect is where we fail. We give up because we don't see fruit on a daily basis. We've seen too many ads that say miracles can happen in 30 days, and we expect the fruit of our labours far too early. We want to go directly from Planting to Harvesting.  

We have to get our heads around the cultivation, the time when we see no change but continue through faith, believing in the process. It works for others; it'll work for you. 

If we can't hack the continual mundane trial of the NYR, e.g. going to the gym and dieting every day without fail, focusing on the main thing at work and not getting distracted, we will fail again.

Olson describes the mundane activity as the Slight Edge because the changes that come from each daily activity are so slight we hardly notice them. But they are the important part. 

He says that simple, productive actions, repeated consistently over time, bring the harvest. Conversely, simple errors in judgment (e.g., not doing them), repeated consistently over time, produce nothing, and we again become despondent. Time doesn't stand still. There is no static time. We are either making errors in judgment or making productive decisions. It's one or the other.

According to Olson, the formula that will give you the slight edge over what you have failed in before is uncomplicated. Stop making the simple minute-by-minute errors in judgment by not doing what you should, but keep repeating those simple, productive actions over time, and the fruit will come. Your NYR will finally be ready for harvest.

Happy New Year. 

Niv

PRAYER

Dear Lord, thank you for the process of making and failing resolutions and for the fact that there are ways to accomplish them. Thank you also for the process of faith, where we cannot see the object of our faith unless we go through the trials of cultivation.  

Photo by Kelly Sikemma