New Year’s Day

When we look at New Year’s Day, we often see it as a fresh start, a time to begin anew. As the weeks wear on, however, it’s not uncommon to go from determined to deflated. One of the reasons 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions regarding health fall by the wayside within the first six weeks of the year is that the individual has failed to first “enhance [their] capacity to either sustain motivation or handle the inevitable stress and discomfort involved in change” (Joseph Luciani, “Why 80 Percent of New Year’s Resolutions Fail,” US News & World Report, December 29, 2015, https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/articles/2015-12-29/why-80-percent-of-new-years-resolutions-fail). In other words, when we rush headlong into a challenge that we haven’t properly prepared or equipped ourselves for mentally or physically, we quickly burn out. This applies to our spiritual life as well as our physical life.