Don’t Give Up On That New Year’s Resolution!

So here we are – two days into the new year, and some of you are already pitching your resolutions into the veritable dust pile of previous New Year’s Resolutions. Some of you probably had a thought process that went something like this – “Okay, what New Year’s Resolution am I going to break this year?” That is the way I have done it in the past. However, this year something has to give if I am truly going to move forward from here. I am sure some of your are feeling the same way.

As I wrote in a previous post, my goal is to eliminate my “quickness to anger” and replace it with “inner peace of mind.” Now, I think it is very important to have a combo New Year’s Resolution. If you only have one resolution, and that is one thing that you are going to do, it is not going to work. Are you familiar with the Vacuum Law of Prosperity? In Chapter 3 of Catherine Ponder’s The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, she talks about the vacuum law of prosperity. She gives an example (as I recall, it has been several years since I read it) of desiring new clothes. She asks what the closet looks like now, and of course it is full of clothes. She says that since you closet is already full of cloths, where would you put the new clothes? Of course, many people would think, well, I would remove old clothes from my closet after I get new clothes. However, that is not how the vacuum law of prosperity works. First, you have to get rid of the old clothes. Upon ridding yourself of the old clothes, it opens up your consciousness to receiving new clothes. This may seem like an overly simplistic example, but it is a powerful one because if you can see it work with something like this, then you will see how it can work with other more important things as well.

Now, I truly want inner peace. I want to have that state of mind where I feel blissed out for the majority of my waking life. However, isn’t it kind of difficult for me to do that if I have a problem with being quick to anger? Absolutely! That is why there must be one thing that is released at the same time that you have what will be replacing it. Otherwise, you are not creating a vacuum.

During the late summer months here in Phoenix, Arizona, we get these powerful monsoon storms that roll through the Valley without much notice. Most people undoubtedly think that strong winds are blowing into the Valley. The truth is, that it is the cool air that is being sucked into the Valley. It works like a vacuum. You see, hot air rises in the atmosphere, but the earth, in its infinite natural wisdom, understands that when that air rises, it needs to replenish the space below where the hot air is rising. It is as if there is a big, giant vacuum hose above the area that is going to be hit with a monsoon storm. Huge cooler billowy dust clouds roll through the Valley, and the faster the hot air is being sucked up, the faster the cooler air races in to replace it. The earth doesn’t want it’s planet to lose air anywhere, so it is always working to do what it needs to do – even if it means blowing down a few trees or knocking off a few rooftops. This is nature at work, folks! Notice, it isn’t the cool air pushing the hot air up. The vacuum is created first. The hot air rises, then the cool air rushes in to replace it.

The same is true with our own “stuff.” We need to create a vacuum in order to open ourselves to success. If we don’t create a vacuum, the resolution you made will just stagnate, just like the wind would if hot air was not rising. (On a side note, most people don’t realize the importance on wind on our planet – it is actually wind that stops our planet from being hotter than it is. If it wasn’t windy, there would be much larger expanses of desert. So next time you want to curse the wind, bless it instead – without it, we probably wouldn’t be alive!)

I talked a bit in a previous post about Monitor and Adjust. I think it is worth mentioning again that when we make the decision to create a vacuum, we need to constantly be monitoring ourselves to make sure we are staying on track. If we are not, then we need to adjust so that we are back on track. It is as if you are on a sailing trip from England to the United States. The captain doesn’t just point in the general direction of the United States and say, “Go that way.” Throughout the trip, he is monitoring his progress, and making sure that they are still on track. Sometimes they will stray off course a bit – in fact, that happens quite frequently. When they do, he will need to adjust his course to make sure he reaches his intended destination.

If we just start off the New Year with a resolution and say, “I am going this way” and we don’t monitor and adjust, by the end of the year, we will once again find that we have gone through year with another broken resolution. Should we be surprised? Well, this is why resolutions are broken:

• We have not created a vacuum.
• We have not used Monitor and Adjust.

Yes, it is that simple! This isn’t supposed to be hard. Truly. Or I should say it is simple, but not easy. That is a powerful statement there. It is simple, but not easy. Even though the concept of keeping a New Year’s Resolution is simple, it does take work to make sure we stay on track. Most things in life are simple, but not easy. Sailing is actually quite simple – but you won’t get any arguments from seasoned sailors when they say it is not easy! Think about it. Is driving a car simple? Especially if you have been doing it for a few years, you would say yes, it is simple, but would you say it is easy to be a good driver? Is it easy to make sure you don’t get in accidents? No, of course not – it is simple, but not easy.

So any time you are adding something new to your repertoire, you have to recognize that you are doing something that requires work. It doesn’t matter how simple it is, you are going to still have to do work. Now, one thing I do know is that the better you get at something, the easier it gets. I remember when I first started driving, I was always afraid that I was too close to the cars that were parked along the right side of my car. As a result, I found myself riding the lane line. Well, all that does is scare the drivers who are in the lane next to me! As I drove more and more (practiced), my comfort with my distance from the parked cars increased. Pretty soon, I was able to drive without even thinking about the parked cars. That meant I was able to focus on the more important things – like moving cars! Driving is a good example because most of you really have no other option but to learn to become a good driver. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get to the places you want to get to – quickly. I would venture to guess that if you drove a car once a month for your entire driving career, that you would lack the comfort it takes to be a very good driver. Because most of us have to drive daily, we are always practicing. If we have a major accident, do we stop driving altogether? If we have a minor accident, do we stop driving? No, we monitor and adjust. We figure out what we did wrong, and we probably pay particular attention to that problem that led to the accident (even if it wasn’t our fault), and we get better at it.

The same is true with your New Year’s Resolution. If you are practicing your resolution daily, it is going to get easier. However, if you only practice it once a month, you are not going to see much success in a year’s time – and it will still seem hard. Make sure you are practicing your resolutions daily! If you do, it will become like driving a car. Simple and easier.

Namaste