Challenges to the New Year

Published on Dec 29, 2012
I don't prefer making New Year's resolutions. To be honest they don't make sense that an individual can only vow to change something at the start of a new year. The tradition, however, stands that at the start of each new year we all try to resolve to be better, make a difference, or change something in a good way. My thinking stands that if you wanted to lose weight, change your demeanor, or overall improve anything that you would have been able to do it long before the new year. Though the concept of starting new beginnings is a strong encouragement for anyone to change themselves or others for the better. About two months ago I embarked on a journey to start and "hopefully" finish a novel that had been brewing in my brain for years. The challenge was National Novel Writing Month (http://nanowrimo.org/) and the challenge for that month was encouraging to the point that I wrote over 50 thousand words to reach my goal of finishing my first novel. While I only wrote half the vow I had made was still going to stand and after a month of rest the challenge lingers again during the month of January. To accept any challenge first you have to make a plan to keep it up. For my own novel writing challenge it was simple, write two-thousand words a day (1667 to be exact). Then it made me think about all the other challenges that I have taken on in my life and failed to achieve. Each challenge was missing the planning to go along with it. A list of tasks or small chunks that could easily be achieved, which would allow the larger goal to be finished. So in preparation for your next "big" resolution look at the smaller parts that make it achievable. Make a checklist, check it twice (if you are a Santa fan), and most of all make the list manageable. Then you will see that this years resolution will stick, because you made it easy enough to make it stick.
Justin Hough author picture
Justin Hough

Chief Development Officer at Hounder. He is a Christian, husband, father, writer, developer, designer, and a digital carpenter crafting amazing web experience. Also, created the Centurion Framework many moons ago.