Let’s
pretend that I am not 2 days late on this and let’s talk about New Year’s
Resolutions. And how they last for about 3 weeks and by the beginning of
February we are sitting on the couch, eating nachos, wondering where that
perfect, thin, super social, genius of a person we all imagined just a few
short weeks ago went. She ran away with your motivation. And left with nothing
but frustration. But why? You were so pumped and full of inspiration! You may
have even written your goals down, but now you are left in a state of
agitation.
Whoa…
Let’s pause and look at some definitions:
Resolution:
a firm decision to do or not to do
something.
Revolution:
a forcible overthrow of a
government or social order in favor of a new system.
Evolution: the gradual development of something,
esp. from a simple to a more complex form.
(All
definitions were copied and pasted from google and therefore are strictly
academic)
Now,
you may be thinking, “What the heck is she thinking?” What can your New Year’s
resolutions have to do with men in three cornered hat kicking out some
snobby-tea-drinkin’ British. And monkeys. Particularly the kind of monkeys that
magically transform into humans over time. There is a connection. Promise.
So,
let’s look at your New Year’s resolutions. The holidays are over and you are
trying now to gear up to go back to reality. If you are anything like me you
have officially overeaten almost every day and, you know, one more cookie can’t
be THAT bad. You reminisce over the year past and come to a startling
realization… you are basically the same person you were 365 days ago. You jerk
with a start and rush to the nearest piece of paper and hurriedly pound out
your New Year’s resolutions. Exercise, healthy eating, getting good grades,
being nicer to your kids, breaking that nasty habit. You are going to be
perfect this year. You have found the solution. And as the ball drops in New
York and you count down the last seconds of the old year, you are confident
that this year, well, this year will be different.
Fast
forward a few months to February. Remember you are sitting on the couch,
pigging out, and wondering what went wrong. I’ll tell you. You wanted a
revolution.
Remember
a revolutions is a forcible
overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. No, you are
not a colonial man poorly disguised as a Native American pouring tea into the
harbor. But you are sick of the old you and want a new order, a new system. You
feel the change in the air. Your inner government has got to go! Off with its
head! (whoops, wrong revolution). You want results, and you want them now. Your
mind has feed you all these images of instant heroic acts that will fill the
pages of history books, and be admired for years to come. Well, I hate to break
it to you. It ain’t gonna happen. You are going to lose steam. You’re going to
hit your Valley Forge moment and give up. And that’s when you find yourself on
the couch, once again.
What I am suggesting is we start New Year’s
Evolutions. Now, I am not suggesting that we should all sprout and extra pair
of legs or turn blue to blend with our environment. Leave biology behind and
look at the definition again from a spiritual, practical point of view. Gradually
(did you catch that word? It’s important) becoming a more complex version of a
simple form. Right now we are in our simple form. “For ye are all the children
of God.” (Galations 3:26) We are children.
We are evolving from a child to what God knows we can become. He see the
evolution. The slow but steady progression to perfection. So how do we do all
this evolving stuff? I don’t know. I’m still figuring it out, so if you get any
brilliant ideas, let me know. But I am going to try something different this
year. I thought of four main areas I want to improve in my life. Healthy
living, spirituality, social experiences, and education. I came up with 12
different mini (and when I say mini, I mean mini) goals under each heading. One
per month. Some are serious like, keep a gratitude journal. Some are silly. I’m
going to run the dirty dash in September. And some are just plain fun. I’m
going to learn how to take better pictures. My goal is to not be overwhelmed,
and not to end up back on the couch.
But
in the end I want to be more like my Savior next year. The scriptures say we
will know Christ when he comes because “we will be like him.” (Moroni 7:48) This
is not going to be a sudden, wake up one morning, “Oh, look I’m perfect! Wonder
how that happened?” experience. It takes a while. Heck, a whole life time. And
that is what God has given us, lots of new years to become like Him.
