Reappearing Resolutions

I happened upon my New Year’s resolutions for 2007 today. The list - all typed up, several pages long, with rather realistic goals – was saved on my work computer. I was cleaning out the hard drive by deleting unused documents when its filename caught my attention: Thrive 2007. I didn’t recognize it, didn’t remember the theme, and had long ago cast it aside unknowingly.

With the double-click of a mouse, I was ushered back to the eve of the New Year, to the desires I once held and had once penned with passion. To THRIVE was my goal – to “grow well” (to grow vigorously and healthily), and to “do well” (to be successful and profitable)… to flourish, to blossom, to increase.

The pages of Thrive 2007 contained ideas, goals, and adjustments that would lead to a healthier me – physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Health – in all areas of my life – was the catalyst to growth.

I listed out things that were healthy… and things that were not.

I defined growth and how I wanted it to look in my life.

I outlined what things are “profitable” and disregarded those that are not.

I categorized my personal goals into education, spiritual walk, relationships, writing, physical health, financial health, and home repairs. Each category had been deemed important (or “profitable”), and was then assigned reachable aims with realistic approaches. Some goals were very specific, others more general and vague, but all were valuable, all encouraged growth, all led to the betterment of my life.

So why did I so easily forget them? How did they become just a forgotten file on a cluttered computer?

Simple. Because it’s easier not to change than to buckle down and break some habits. It’s easier to continue in the same direction than to back track and find a better way. It’s easier to ignore than to fix... easier to get busy then to get right.

And I chose “easy.” I chose “unchanged.” I chose surviving, but not thriving.

As I scrolled down the list today, I noticed several goals had been accomplished - one faster than desired, one taken even further than projected - but the rest were undone, undated, unacknowledged.

So the file now sits printed on my desk, a 3-page document ready to go home with me, ready to be applied.

Better late than never.