Word up!

So…

I stopped being a resolution guy a few years back when I kept looking at back at my lists year over year and seeing the same things over and over.

Either I wanted to keep accomplishing the same things… or I wasn’t accomplishing anything at all. So, my lists turned into regretful good intentions with no follow-through.

If success breeds more success… then I was succeeding at failing. And that cycle got (gets) old. And apparently my tolerance of it had a huge reservoir.

 Last year, instead of goals or resolutions, I shifted to a ‘word’ for the year. It’s largely semantics, I guess, but the ‘word’ serves a much larger, broader concept. It’s not about a list of checked off items as much as an overriding directive for the year. A focus. A driving theme.

Last year, my word was ACTION. It was about not lying around and expecting life to come to me. Go out and DO. Get off my butt and do more than just exist. Now, I had specific areas where I wanted this ACTION to revolve and take me. Looking back on 2017, while I certainly wasn’t perfect, I DID try to put that word to good use.

Some major things didn’t happen, partially because of fear (lack of faith), some because of missed opportunity (my fault) and some because of laziness (go figure). But, you don’t hit 100% of the balls you don’t swing at and I hit a few.

I wanted to get involved in a men’s Bible study and in July, I found one with a great group of guys. I’m looking forward to it starting back up in 2018. I also began serving in the youth again at my church. There’s still a very long, hard story there that may get written some time, but I finally pushed through and decided to ACT on that calling.

There were other, more minor victories. But hey, any victory for me is a defeat for the opposition of inactivity, so I’ll take what I can get.

But, as I looked back, I noticed a disturbing trend. One I should have planned for, but hey, experience is the best teacher, right? I definitely tried to ACT on more things, but I discovered I left lots of things unfinished. I’d start something but wouldn’t finish. And in some circumstances, it cost me money, opportunity, accomplishment, and even direction and progress.

I realized I became King of Unfinished Business. I’m not putting that on my resume.

I had all these good intentions and started many things… but completed so few. It actually reminded me of a situation in my job a couple years ago where I had a ton of projects working. It felts like I was working hard but accomplishing nothing. I was spread so thin, I would push each forward incrementally, but they took forever to complete. Some were my fault. Others were reliant on other people… but the parallel fits. A lot of work getting done with little to show by way of results.

All this made it pretty easy to pick my word for 2018: FINISH (as opposed to FINNISH for you crazy folks from Finland).

There’s a certain amount of discipline it takes to start a new venture or process. Foremost, it takes planning. Without a plan, it’s just aimless wandering. And aimless wandering rarely leads you to your destination.  It’s an interesting analogy because so often this year I even used the words in my own head ‘I feel lost’. That’s a heavy statement with many tendrils, but the core of it is I was wandering aimlessly… thinking if I started something, I was good. My focus was only half right.

Finish.

Nothing gets accomplished if you don’t see it through. I take that back. What gets accomplished is maybe worse than not starting something at all. By not finishing, you chip away at confidence because you haven’t proved to yourself you can see things through. Anyone can start something. I can START a marathon… but I sure as heck ain’t finishing one right now. They key is to know where you can push yourself and where you can’t. So, self-awareness is paramount.

If something is worth starting in 2018, it’s worth finishing. Whether that’s a project to work on the back yard, a class I’m taking, a health-related goal or even just a book. The ‘what’ doesn’t matter. WHATever it is… Finish.

Now, the danger to a word like this is really examining yourself to ensure you don’t start something you have no real intention of finishing, so it can lead to inactivity. So, the two words work in conjunction with each other: ACTION and FINISH.

Newsflash: I’m not the most disciplined person. I’m hoping a word like FINISH will help keep me focused to finish things even when I don’t want to. If ACTION is the jumpstart, FINISH is the fuel to drive me forward to conclusion.

I’d appreciate your prayers this year. If you think of me, just say a quick prayer for me. Be as generic or specific as you want. I’ll do the same for you.

A tangible reflection of that is wishing every friend I have on FB a happy birthday. It’s simple. It’s easy. But it also forces me to think of you all and say a prayer for you. I may miss you by a day, but if you don’t hear from me, call me out. I’m cool with it. It’s something I’m going to start…

And I won’t stop until I finish.