New Year's Resolutions

I spent this weekend working on New Year's resolutions. Interestingly, these were not as difficult as I had anticipated, which was both good and bad. Good, because it means that (maybe) I'm learning something about goal setting and how I work best; bad, because it means that I realized that in some ways setting goals is meaningless.

Meaningless you say? Yes, in the sense that we can set goals based on circumstances and things that are out of our control. If I look at my goals for the previous year, there were several that were centered around the assumption that we would continue to live in Old Home, I would have the same job, and that our finances would be the same. Obviously, none of that occurred, so to the extent that I set goals based on those circumstances, I failed.

However, what it did bring to mind is that I have the opportunity to set goals based on things that I can control: My time, my interests, my sense of what I am being called to do, the family and resources that I have been blessed with. Could these change? Yes, but time is time, my sense of being called to the things that interest me have truly not changed in many years, my family is not going anywhere, and the resources I have here now are (barring the collapse of society) not likely to go away.

Did I stretch? Yes - in someways my goals and resolutions this year are more aggressive than ever and will involve me having greater management of my time than ever, along with truly attempting to get to the heart of what is important and what is not. But in working through these resolutions and goals this weekend, what came to my attention is that time is continuing to march resolutely on, and the only person that is hurt by continued failure to move forward, make the hard choices, and achieve is me - and the calling and responsibilities I have been given by God. The time will pass - it's how I'm using it that matters.

Or as Musashi said, "Do nothing that is of no use."