I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions. For me, they’re just not practical.
I make “resolutions” all year long. I resolve to eat better, exercise more, help more people, count to 10 and breathe deeply before imagining the destruction of the vehicle that just cut me off in traffic. And I don’t do those things effectively for very long.
I think it’s because I’m setting goals for things I hope to have accomplished by the end of the year. When I get things done, it’s because I’m setting goals for what I can get done today.
I set one goal for this year, actually. I put it in writing.
I plan to read 25 books this year – books I haven’t read yet, or don’t remember reading. I’ve read one so far. I love to read and I read daily, but I’m kind of haphazard.
I’ll start four or five books at a time, reading more of two or three than the others, and not really focusing on any of them. I’m trying to read just one at a time. I’ve never been good at that, but I’m trying to focus a bit.
The only way I’m going to make that year end goal, however, is by narrowing it down into bite-sized goals.
When I reach the end of June, I’ll reassess. Hopefully, I’ll have (at least) 12 books completed and be into a 13th.
At the end of January, I hope to have two books completed and be part-way through a third.
My goal for today is to have read a couple of chapters before I go to bed tonight.
The books I’m reading are different lengths, of different genres, both fiction and non-fiction, newer releases and classics.
My first book of the year was a 1973 Stephen King book entitled “Blaze,” published under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. The one I’m reading now is “Flags of Our Fathers,” a non-fiction book about the author’s father and his involvement as one of the men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.
Next is a book I’ll read as part of a newly-formed committee at the church I attend, as part of an effort to increase our effectiveness in Sunday school and discipleship classes, aptly entitled “Breathing Life into Sunday School.”
Some of the books I’ll read this year will be better than others. I’ll be entertained more by some, learn more from others. But I’ll read each one with a purpose, as part of my overall goal.
I wrote recently on missing the forest for the trees – my tendency to focus too much on details that often don’t matter or are distractions, rather than keeping the end goal in sight. I’ve also got to make sure I take care of the steps needed to reach an ultimate goal.
I’ll never make my goal of reading two-dozen-plus books if I don’t read today. You can’t wake up one day to discover you’ve built a house or raised a confident child or written an opera. You have to lay a foundation and build on it, teach a child with instruction and example, write and fine-tune music and lyrics.
If you want people to say at your funeral that you were a kind and loving person, generous and liked by all, you can’t wait until you’re dead to be those things. You have to start building that reputation now. If you want God to say to you one day, “Well done,” then you have to start by doing well today.
Well. Let’s get to work, shall we?
Brett Campbell can be reached at ChunkyBrett@mail.com.
