(For we run, walk, or crawl by faith, not by sight:) ~ 2 Corinthians 5:7
Well, the seconds have ticked on by and a new year is here! Many have made resolutions for this coming year. From quitting certain vices to starting diets and exercise programs, the resolutions have grown from our desires to 'change' the things in our lives we dislike the most. The excitement of entering a 'new year' encourages us to step up and take a chance at creating a 'new' us. The new year heralds an opportunity to do things differently than how it was done in the past. It tantalizes us with the thoughts of discarding the old and ringing in the new! The new year generates an excitement to start anew and change what couldn't be changed. Its like taking a breath of fresh air at the dawning of a new day!
Oh, if only fulfilling our resolutions were to be so easy! If such change could be accomplished by the simplicity of a thought! If this morning, when we awakened, and walked up to the mirror, we would see a 'new' you. You know the one, the one you resolved to change in a resolution last night. The 'new' slimmer, younger looking version you saw in your mind when you first envisioned your new year's resolution. If only the mere thought of thinking the vice that has you bound were to have disappeared at the strike of midnight! But it has probably by now become very apparent. As you stand in the mirror, the 'new' you is still the old you. The year has changed, but the mirror on the wall seems to keep time standing still.
How depressing, right? WRONG! Inside you yearn to keep those resolutions you proclaimed as the final weeks of last year rolled on by. Deep within your being, you resolved that, this time, things were going to be different! And on this first day of the new year, I am here to encourage you! Not only can you do this, YOU will do this!
One of the keys to keeping your resolution is VISION! In order for you to manifest what you resolved to change, you must first see it manifested! You cannot 'see' the old you in the mirror, but when you look in the mirror you must SEE the new you. Norman Vincent Peale said, "Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture." If you have resolved to lose twenty pounds, then you MUST already see yourself twenty pounds lighter. If you have resolved to run in this 5K challenge you must SEE yourself crossing that finish line in March. And not only must you see it, you must also manifest all the feelings and emotions that come with the success of fulfilling your resolution.
Frank Gaines said, "Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible." You see, a resolution without a vision is really nothing at all. The scripture says the Lord's people are destroyed for a lack of vision! Where there is no vision, nothing happens. In order to transform yourself from the old to the new, you must have a vision of exactly where you are going or its just a handful of words that cannot be put into action. "Visualize this thing you want. See it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin." ~ Robert Collier From this day forward, you must change what you see in the mirror and not only what you see, how you speak, and how you feel. With every fiber within your being you MUST manifest the 'new' you before you can become the NEW you! Orison Swett Marden said it this way, "We lift ourselves by our thought. We climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always everywhere."
There is no doubt we are by nature, creatures of habit and its only when we step out of the comfort zone of the creature can we truly make any real progress. Denis Waitley said, "A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown." It has been said the only difference between the grave and a rut is the depth, but I say its worse to be in a rut because you are still alive and you still have choice! Today, as you stare at the face in the mirror, YOU HAVE A CHOICE. You can fall back into the rut that has kept you there or you can begin to break out of the comfort zone of the rut and into a new life! But be sure, the only way this is going to happen is to maintain a vision of where you are going! You must not only envision it, but you must also act as though you are already there. It has been said that many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers. There is no easy way out of the rut. I can encourage and even help pull you out of the rut, but only YOU can keep yourself from falling back into the rut. The power to stay out of the rut of comfort and complacency can only come from within the depth and desire of your inner vision.
The Apostle Paul said it this way in Philippians chapter three, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." One principle of forgetting the past must be maintained as you endeavor to fulfill your vision. Its time to forget last year's mistakes, and reach forth unto those things which are before. Henry David Thoreau said, "The question is not what you look at, but what you see." Therefore, whatever you have envisioned yourself to become, you must press toward that mark and fight to achieve it to the fullest. Will it be easy? More than likely not, but when you get there, it will by far outweigh any experience of living in the rut!
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