Tired of setting and failing at New Year’s Resolutions?
Instead of setting goals and making resolutions that are prone to fail, three authors suggest that taking the time to define one word that will become the theme, vision, and driving force of your life for the next twelve months brings laser-like focus and clarity to your life and has the power to change everything.
According to Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page in their book, One Word That Will Change Your Life, every year 87% of adults – that’s more than 226 million people in the U.S. – create new goals and resolutions, only to experience the same frustrating results: false starts and failure. [1]
Statistically speaking, 50% of resolution makers fail at their resolutions before the end of January. You read it right, only half of us stick to our convictions and resolutions for just 30 days. After 30 days, the percentage shrinks even more.
TIME Magazine estimates that as many as 80% of people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions by the end of February. [2] Further, researchers suggest that only 9% of Americans who make resolutions complete them. [3]
Author Mike Ashcraft described it like this:
“The ball keeps dropping in Times Square each New Year’s. And we keep dropping the ball on our resolutions to improve. Only 20 percent of resolution makers report achieving any significant long-term change.” —Mike Ashcraft [4]
The ball keeps dropping and we keep dropping the ball…
Been there. Done it.
How about you?
The authors of One Word looked at this conundrum and arrived at the following conclusion as to the reason for our widespread failure when it comes to keeping our resolutions and accomplishing our goals.
“We set to-do goals instead of to-be goals. [For too many of us] success is measured by what we accomplish instead of who we become.”
—Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page [5]
Gordon and company believe that instead of setting a series of goals or resolutions, we need a radical new approach.
The secret to a successful and simplified life, they write, is to arrive at ONE WORD that will become the theme, vision, and driving force of your life for the next twelve months. Words like Serving, Purpose, Grace, Surrender, Power, or Discipline. Or, maybe words like Balance, Commitment, Love, Focus, Generous, Faithful, Thankful and the list goes on.
Determine ONE WORD that will become the theme, vision, and driving force
of your life for the next twelve months
They believe that “embracing, owning, and living a single word for 365 days” creates a laser-like focus for your life that has the power to change everything!
I highly recommend their book, One Word That Will Change Your Life. It’s a short, but powerful and potentially life-changing read.
That brings me to this question:
What’s your ONE WORD for 2024?
A couple of questions you might want to ask God you consider your ONE WORD include the following:
Heavenly Father, what do you want me to know?
What do you want me to do? [6]
A couple of questions you might want to ask yourself include these:
Who do I really want to be?
How do I really want to be? [7]
These questions get to the issue of the core values that will drive your life.
My ONE WORD
I’ve been praying about my ONE WORD for the last couple of weeks or so. A few days ago my daily Bible Reading Plan brought me to a passage that rocked me and continues to rock me. It’s Psalm 92:12-14. I’ve also looked it up in several translations. I’ll list my top two.
“The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. 13 Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, healthy and green…” —Psalm 92:12-14 Holman
“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; 13 planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green…” —Psalm 90:12-14 NIV
Think about that. “The righteous thrive…” “The righteous will flourish…” “They will bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.”
Oh, how I want that to be true of me as I wrap up five decades of life in the next ten months.
As I began to pray about my ONE WORD for 2024, the word that kept coming back to me over and over was the word THRIVE.
My ONE WORD for 2024 is THRIVE.
I looked the word up in several dictionaries. Here’s what I discovered. The word THRIVE means, “1 to prosper or flourish, 2 to grow vigorously, 3 to gain in wealth or possessions: prosper, 4 to grow, develop or be successful, 5 to progress toward or realize a goal despite of or because of the circumstances.”
Wow! What a word!
So, in 2024 I believe God is calling me to THRIVE in every dimension of my life: spiritually, relationally, emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially.
Proverbs 11:28b declares, “…the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.”
For the next 12 months or 365 days, I’m going to focus on, embrace, own and live this word with everything I’ve got.
“…I focus on this one thing…” —Philippians 3:13b NLT
THRIVE
What about you?
What’s your ONE WORD for 2024?
Why not take some time over the next few days to pray into this and ask God if there’s ONE WORD He wants you to focus on over the coming 12 months?
You might want to ask Him:
Heavenly Father, what do you want me to know?
What do you want me to do? [8]
You might want to consider:
Who do I really want to be?
How do I really want to be? [9]
Listen for God’s voice.
Remember your core values.
Determine your ONE WORD.
[1] Gordon, Jon; Britton, Dan; Page, Jimmy. One Word That Will Change Your Life, Expanded Edition (Jon Gordon) . Wiley. Kindle Edition.
[2] https://time.com/6243642/how-to-keep-new-years-resolutions-2/
[3] https://fisher.osu.edu/blogs/leadreadtoday/why-most-new-years-resolutions-fail
[4] Mike Ashcraft, My One Word, p 15, Kindle Edition.
[5] Jon Gordon, Dan Britton and Jimmy Page,
One Word That Will Change Your Life, Location 135, Kindle Ed.
[6] I first became acquainted with these questions through the teaching of Jamie Winship.
[7] Thanks to Mike Ashcraft for suggesting these two questions in his book, My One Word.
[8] I first became acquainted with these questions through the teaching of Jamie Winship.
[9] Thanks to Mike Ashcraft for suggesting these two questions in his book, My One Word.