I skipped last week due to Christmas. Welcome back and thanks for reading! Hope you find some useful resolution tips for 2021. Hard to believe it’s already here.

Outside of COVID, on January 2^nd, tons of gyms would be full of people living out their New Year’s Resolutions pumping iron and getting their sweat on with vigor. By January 10^th, about 50% of them will already taper off and by February, the majority remaining will be the daily gym rats. Resolutions have become a social media meme as much as they are a true commitment. According to an article from www.thetimestribune.com called Tips for making sure your New Year’s Resolutions stick (Mills, Jan 3, 2020), only 8% of people in the US actually keep their resolutions and 80% fail by February. Our jokes about resolutions are far more reality than jokes. We make them to feel good in the moment but lack the discipline to carry them forward. But why?

A primary driver is that most are superficial. Eating right, working out, staying healthy make up most of our resolutions. The issue is we often don’t see it as a lifelong longevity issue but more of a looking good concern. That’s a microcosm of most resolutions. We see others living a certain way, doing certain things, and looking a certain way and we set our resolutions based on others. In my view, we set ourselves up for failure this way. Social media has only made things more of a challenge. We only see the part of others’ lives that they want us to see – some illusion of perfection. A crazy byproduct is more depression, more self-doubt, and more insecurities.

Living with a leave no doubt mindset requires the best version of YOU. Living with this mindset overcomes insecurities and that alone open a new world of possibilities. As you read through these “resolutions” consider how they apply to you and how they might help you become best version of yourself. Also, the recommendations that follow aren’t specific. The specifics are for you to figure out. A good homework assignment.

Break Your Routines:

Bob Goff is one of my favorite writers. I guess he’s a writer. He’s more of a whimsical dreamer who writes books and acts as an attorney and ambassador on the side. He dreams of days where people do things that matter and do them with a whimsical and joyful heart. In one of his recent books called “Dream Big,” he talks about sleepwalking. The idea is that we get into these routines and sort of sleepwalk through our lives and lose out on powerful, world changing ambitions that might be living within us.

For me, my routines are set and frankly, I don’t love change or breaking them. It’s a sense of security for me as much as discipline. Security is fine and discipline maybe even better, but if we aren’t careful, an over reliance on security keeps us from living out what we are called to do.

You know the time lapse pictures of Los Angeles traffic? The streaks of amber and red look cool. They also illuminate the rat race of routines we live in. It seems as if we almost program ourselves to do the same things day in and day out. I do it. Highly likely you do it. We do our daily routine and then cycle, rinse, and repeat. In this environment, it’s easy to lose sight of our true potential and true calling.

So how do we break our routines? Intentional commitment. I don’t suggest you wake up on Jan 2 and put in your letter of resignation. That’s not wise. That’s sort of dumb. In fact, you might be doing the JOB you’re supposed to be doing. There’s more to life than your job though.

To begin our resolution pursuits, we don’t have to try to eat the apple in one bite. We can start small. For example, commit to challenges throughout the year. These could be monthly challenges, quarterly challenges, and even a once-a-year big challenge. These challenges could be progressive in nature. For example, once a quarter go for a long hike in a new place (4x/year). Twice a year, step up the challenge to something more challenging. And then once a year, really push it: run a marathon, go sky diving, etc. These can be physical challenges or mental challenges. The most important thing is that they are new, not part of your daily routine, and are in fact challenging.

Another writer I enjoy, Mark Batterson, said in one of his books that he and his daughter trained all year to swim from Alcatraz to the San Francisco shore. Talk about a challenge and breaking the routine! The training couldn’t have been comfortable, and the anxiety with such a feat had to be way up there, but just think about how much they learned about themselves in the process. I once went with a buddy in Alaska to try ice climbing. I’d rather disarm a bomb than be way up high. Yet, there I was, literally on a straight up vertical ice cliff hanging on. Will never forget it. Uncomfortable moments can be super moments…game changing moments. We simply can’t experience those moments if we don’t commit to challenging ourselves.

You can decide your specific challenges through the year that help you break the routines and experience more. Just make sure you write them out, communicate them and/or find an accountability partner. Whatever you need to do to carry them out, just do it.

Learn New Skills:

Learning new skills is a great tool to broaden your overall skill set and knowledge base. It also gives our minds a break from the normal daily activities…a nice outlet, so to speak. And let’s not forget about building up some courage! Committing to learn new skills requires you to have some courage to try something new and the courage to fail. Goodness, I remember when I first signed up for Explosive Ordnance Disposal (Bomb Squad). I was young and totally afraid to fail, even in training. In that career field, the only place you can fail is in training. The motto is “Initial Success or Total Failure.” In the practical training exercises, I wanted to observe more than do. That was a mistake. I quickly learned the best way to learn the skills was to just face the possibility of screwing up and do it. We learned way more from failure in our training sessions than sitting on the side observing. Point is, don’t be afraid to learn and try new things. Failure and messing up is part of the experience and journey.

As we begin 2021, be encouraged to try to learn new things and skills. As Kobe Bryant liked to say, “be curious.” Ask a ton of questions and be inquisitive. That does take some bravery, but it’s worth it. The more we see how much we learn from failure, the less afraid we’ll be of it. I know some folks that were deathly afraid of public speaking but wanted to learn the skill. They joined Toast Masters to face those fears. Yes, they likely have some embarrassing moments. Yet, they also learned the most from those moments and ultimately learned a new skill. New skills could be a vareity of things. Some folks may want to learn how to cook. I mentioned ice climbing above, some want to learn how to mountain climb, ice climb, ride motorcycles, etc. I have always admired those people that have the courage just to go out and try new things and get new experiences. They have such a broad understanding of culture, their limits, and they carry themselves with a great self confidence mixed in with humility – Failing here and there has a way of doing that.

Pursue some new skills and broaden your horizons starting in 2021.

Physical Health – Maintain the Temple:

1^st Corinthians 6: 19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

This verse is certainly not just talking about your physical body, but also living a life in pursuit of holiness and righteousness. However, spiritual living does have a huge impact on physical health.

I believe that the body, mind, and spirit work together and when one is off, the rest tend to follow. For example, I don’t believe I am at my best when my physical health gets out of control. My self-confidence dips, my insecurities go up, I’m far more anxious/nervous about things, and I focus less on the necessary outcome and task than I need to. From a performance standpoint, a healthy body makes a ton of sense practically.

Today, however, there’s even more necessity to having a healthy body. COVID-19 highlighted the health crisis globally. Viruses like to attack the weak, and COVID was especially potent in that regard. We all saw quickly that those with high blood pressure and other physical health issues were far more susceptible to severe COVID impacts than those who were healthier. In fact, in February 2020, when we first started to hear about COVID, I did a full court press on my own physical health. Here was my anti-COVID routine that I believe has turned into more of a long-term road map.

1. Cardio – I started running daily. Not long runs. But daily runs. On average, I ran about 2 miles per day. Once a week, I did a longer run, say 4 miles or so. If you’re a good runner, this will be higher. If you’re in poor health, start by walking. Just get out and move!
2. Cross Training – I lifted weights, did body weight movements, used the rower, and went for walks. My objective was to get to an overall fitness level. Honestly, I wanted to be able to run 3 – 5 miles maintaining a decent pace while also hitting certain weight in major compound movements. I was 41 over the summer and was able to hit those goals.
3. Vitamin Intake – Increasing vitamin intake was and is crucial. Vitamin D (with K), Zinc, Multi-Vitamin (with Copper), NAC, Vitamin C, Elderberry, Apple Cider, probiotic and others became a daily staple.
4. Healthier Eating – From March to September I really cut out negative calories such as sugars, fried food, etc. I also went to a more intermittent fasting schedule and my first meal was around lunch that consisted of greens, reds, protein power, and other nutrients.

The key for me was not looking at it as simply losing weight or looking good but getting healthier to live longer. Full disclosure, since the holidays, I’ve fallen off this routine a bit. The vitamins are still very much part of the daily routine. The running and heathy eating have slipped a bit…planning on fixing that asap!

From my experience over the years, my mood, performance, and more is majorly impacted by my physical health. My wife will tell you that when I’m getting dialed in physically, I’m a much happier fella! I encourage you not to lose weight, but to find a path to a healthier overall lifestyle.

Spirit and Mind:

As you know, if you’ve read any of the other posts and as mentioned in this post, I’m a huge believer in the whole person concept, which includes having a healthy body, mind, and spirit. Taking care of the temple (the body) is a great New Years Resolution but has limited effect if we fail to take care of our spirit and mind.

I’ll start off by saying that I recommend finding space in your life to pray. I realize not everyone reading this is spiritual, or believe in prayer, so for you, find space for quiet time of introspection or meditation I suppose. For me, it’s prayer. You might be asking or saying, “I don’t really know what to pray.” Well, many of us struggle with the same question of “what do I pray.” I certainly don’t know sometimes. Chillax, don’t beat yourself up. It’s no problem. You’re in the same boat as most folks. When I’m stuck, I might pray the bible or just start praying through my day. And if those go awry, then just pray your thankfulness. There’s a passage in Psalms that I just think captures the heart of prayer and that’s Psalm 86. Its referred to as The Prayer of David. Just look at the first couple verses, “Hear me, Lord, and answer me for I am poor and needy. Guard my life…” Such a passionate and humble plea from a King.

Whatever your tactic, find space in your day to humble yourself and find space for thankfulness, pleading, and connection to your inner spirit. It’s refreshing and healing. And very necessary.

For the mind, commit this year to read more books. I was never a huge reader growing up. Over the years, though, I’ve realized how much my mind opened from reading. When I read more, I feel more creative, inspired, and just more engaged. It’s incredible to read stories of people doing astounding things. Or just learning about experiences you could never believe would have happened. What led to them, why did it happen, how did people respond – all are questions answered from reading. We should absolutely take advantage of research people have done to study culture, teamwork, winning, leadership, and more. It’ll make us better leaders and stretch our minds to consider what’s possible.

In today’s environment, when we see an attack on history, not condemnation as to what happened, but attempts to eradicate events from the history books, reading books is even more important than ever! Without stories from the past we risk repeating atrocities we could never fathom. There’s really power in reading. I encourage you to commit to reading more in 2021 – start small if you must, just start.

Re-Connect:

The definition of romance is “a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.” I’d like to change it. How about, “a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and connection to everyday life?” There’s a passage in the bible that reminds us that the miracles and mysteries of God are all around us. Those miracles are in the trees, the air we breathe, the rotation of the earth, the rain falling, the snow on the mountain peaks, and the wind carrying life. The basic mysteries of science reveal to us a splendor of possibilities all around us. My desire for us is to launch into the new year with restoration in mind. Restoring our connection to gratitude, dreaming, appreciating, and believing again.

Certainly, wishing people a great 2021 is fine. Or suggesting that 2021 will be your best year ever is also fine. The issue with both is they cut short the bigger picture. How do we connect our lives with an eternal perspective? Today, our connections and priorities just seem off. We are no longer connected to the greatest mysteries of life, but self-generated and shallow realities. “Friends,” “connections,” and “followers” now seem to define our worth and standing.

While playing games on New Year’s Night at our house, a quick glance around the room to the teens and they are physiologically unable to disconnect their face from their phones. Such a new reality.  I’m not yet convinced it isn’t a troubling reality. It’s not just kids though. It’s you and I as well. Daily, we’re connecting to other people’s false realities. I find myself scrolling, almost in a mind-numbing fashion through social media…it’s like a trance for goodness sakes!

The specific connections may be different for each of us; the results are the similar, however. We forget what matters. We overlook new possibilities. As we get older, and further ingrained in daily routines, we too often forget to dream and believe. Cynicism overwhelms us over time.

In fact, one of the saddest things a person can hear or say is that they no longer dream or see their dreams. The daily grind relinquishes a once burning fire in their soul. Toss in a pandemic, social unrest, political division, social media, and things get cloudier. Throughout 2020 we’ve heard stories of hope, inspiration, and more. We’ve also heard of despair, hopelessness, and pain. This global adversity has reminded me of how important it is to re-connect and appreciate the world we have in front of us.

The other day I had to laugh. As I was digging in the fridge, it was full, and I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Frustration grew, then immediate embarrassment. I remember when my wife and I were poor. We had no money for dog food and had to feed the dog we had one or two scrambled eggs until we could afford actual dog food. Our fridge was often somewhat empty. Far more than it is today. Our date night consisted of 99 cent movie rentals and breadsticks with alfredo sauce from Olive Garden because we couldn’t afford a meal. Yet, I look back at those days with such appreciation and fondness. It wasn’t about the money. It was living. I’ve learned though, never be frustrated with a full refrigerator. Basic appreciation in a world of abundance is so hard to do.

So how can we re-connect with the pathway to our purpose? Here’s a list of things I think we can start doing in 2021.

• Dream More or Again: Can you dream more? Yes. Can you dream again? Yes. And you must! If you could dream your perfect life, living out your greatest passions, what would that look like? How tragic would it be if the world was unable to experience that?
• Show Appreciation and Gratitude: Walk outside and take a deep breath with your eyes closed. Open your eyes and really see again. Take in the birds, the wind in the trees, the sun in the sky…how incredible is it, truly?
• Give More: Break your routine by giving – go to a shelter, food bank, underprivileged neighborhood. Experience the power of giving more. What stories will you hear that change your perspective and mindset? How much more will you appreciate what you have? How much less will you care about what you don’t have?
• Feel More: No one wants to feel more. Why? We shame emotion and brag about not being emotional. What’s wrong with feeling joy, opening yourself up to emotional response – how else will you know what you’re passionate about? Don’t let people steal the miracles that may be in front of you by suppressing your passion. This is something I personally struggle with.
• Listen More: Ever just stop and really listen to someone talk? Like, really listen. Not listen to get ready to speak, but listen to understand? Try it.
• Believe Again: Is it possible to go into 2021 and believe for more? Not necessarily believing more for yourself. But believing more for humanity?
• See More Splendor: How about stealing a page from the book, “A Touch of Wonder” and find the sweetest moments in the smallest things?

None of the above takes money, status, or internet connection. None require a group of followers or 5000 friends or connections. You don’t have to live in a mansion or in a camper – it doesn’t matter where you live. We just need to step back and “taste and see” how great He is.

Best wishes in 2021.