Being a regular gym rat, I always dread January. The parking lot will be packed, there will be lines for the machines, the cardio area will be overflowing. The locker room jammed with tons of well meaning people all adorned in their shiny new workout clothes they received for Christmas. I have hope though, February is right around the corner and it will all be cleared out by then. Those well intentioned resolutions will be forgotten.

One definition of ‘resolution’ is a completion, a finish to something started. In music a ‘resolution’ is the progression from dissonant harmony to consonant harmony, from a dominant to the root; a sense of tension and release. I like this idea much better in terms of a ‘end of year resolution‘ rather than a ‘new year resolution‘. ‘New Year resolutions’ seem to me to be an exercise in futility. It’s easy to start stuff… I have a 100 year old house full of projects I’ve started to prove it. What is more difficult is ‘resolving’ things that you’ve begun.

Are there things from last year or the year before or 10 years ago that you made a ‘resolution’ about or started that you have yet to ‘resolve’ or finish? I think it’s better to clean the slate a bit at the end of the year before loading it up again with empty promises. Are there relationships you’ve yet to reconcile? How about your relationship with God? Bringing things to a ‘resolution’ is tougher, it requires action NOW, but brings immediate reward and satisfaction. Making new ‘resolutions’ may make you feel great now, but how about in a month when you’ve forgotten all about it and fallen short?

I think short term goals make more sense. “Tomorrow I will get to the gym.” “I will watch what I eat at lunch today.” “I will pick up the phone and call my sister now.” “When the kids get home today we will play a board game.” One day at a time, one hour at a time, one minute at a time. This way falling short is not a failure, it’s just feedback you can use to adjust the next small goal. When you make the goal to read the entire Old Testament before bed and fall short, the next night you might make a small adjustment.

I suggest we end the previous year with a Dominant7 to Root progression… finding a release to last years tension… a worthy ‘resolution’.