How do I know if I am ready for the New Decade?

The problem with resolutions is that they are made based on what you THINK you should do....Not what you WANT to do.

“Lose weight, make more money, spend more time with family...”

All great goals; but if you don’t want to work for them and you’re only saying it because that’s what you think you’re supposed to say, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

We are told our whole lives “commit” to goals, relationships, etc but most of us haven’t ever committed and followed through with anything because we don’t have enough passion, or a list of additional factors that I want to address.

1. Commitment = passion. You have to have an irresistible passion for your resolution or you’ll last no farther than the end of January like 70% of people who set resolutions. We have to find something we are passionate about; create a goal based on that; follow through with your goal; then you’ve formed a habit. Learn to fall in love with creating habits and you’ll create a subconscious pattern of following through in every aspect of life.

2. Forgive yourself = ability to progress. We have got the come to grips with understanding that everything that happened in the last decade was a lesson. Maybe the last year or last decade (in this case) didn't offer you everything that you hoped it would... THAT'S OK! There are going to be ups and downs in every year, so instead of judging yourself off of one year, let's make progress over a decade by taking every challenge or lesson we learned in 2019 an consciously apply it to making our 2020 better.

3. Be bold enough to DEMAND a Double Portion = faith. As much as you might refuse to believe that thoughts are things... its true! You have the ability to speak things into existence. It is okay to demand a bigger, better, more fruitful life in the next decade! When you command things to happen, the universe will conspire to make things happen. All of the challenges you have been through are setting you up for something big. The reality is, maybe you needed to learn lessons before God could trust you with the huge "something" He is about to give you.

4. Inner happiness= Joy. When you are joyful, you are not affected by outside distractions. People are "happy" because of something going on outside of them, but JOY comes from within. You will know that you are ready for the next decade when you learn to control your emotions and not let people or circumstances ruin your day. Some people take one bad moment in time (someone cutting them off on the way to work) and they let that one bad moment drag on ALL DAY LONG. This is how your bad moments become days, weeks, months, and years.

Instead of thinking about a resolution for a year, I dare you to take a look at the last decade of your life, and set goals that you want to accomplish in the next decade. When we look so microscopically at each year, we can get discouraged by the bad, which makes us give up early. The truth is, each year will be filled with ups and downs... it is just part of life. When we look at the bigger picture, forgive ourselves for the "bad" in past years, be bold enough to demand a better future, and stay joyful regardless of what life throws at us... only THEN will we know that we are ready for the new decade.