NEW YEAR CHOICES

I’m quite excited about my New Year’s resolution, and I think it’s going to work. No, I know it’s going to work. It’s got to, because I see now that my future hinges on it. “Think small.”

That may seem like a contradiction of the usual New Year refrain—“Think big”—but actually, it complements it. I hit on “Think small” after a friend pointed me to “The Formula,” an online article by Jim Rohn. Here are a few excerpts that sum up the “think small” strategy:

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.

On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn’t result in an instant and measurable impact.

Failure’s most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don’t seem to make any difference. Since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices, and making the wrong choices.

Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It’s a few simple disciplines practiced every day. As we voluntarily change daily errors into daily disciplines, we experience positive results.

What better way to further our major life goals than by determining to make better “small” choices, what better time to start than the New Year, and who better to help us make and stick to those choices than the One who made us and knows exactly what we need! With God all things are possible. “Think small.”

Choose
Choose to love, rather than hate.
Choose to smile, rather than frown.
Choose to build, rather than destroy.
Choose to preserve, rather than quit.
Choose to praise, rather than gossip.
Choose to heal, rather than wound.
Choose to give, rather than grasp.
Choose to act, rather than delay.
Choose to forgive, rather than curse.
Choose to pray, rather than despair.
—Author unknown

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Romans 8:7 ESV / For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

1 Kings 18:21 ESV / And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

Deuteronomy 30:15 ESV / “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.