Three Ways To Prepare For A Successful New Year

 

 

Are you prepared for a successful New Year?

Statistics show that 80% of people have given up on their New Year’s resolutions by February, according to US. News. While only 8% of those who set goals actually achieve them.

So what about the other 92%?

The truth is most people don’t plan to fail. They simply, fail to plan. And today, we want to share three ways we prepare for a successful New Year!

Our Preparation Story

Every year we have a family meeting to review our; spiritual, family, personal, financial, and business goals.

However, before we meet, we take time individually before the Lord to ask, what He would have for us in the New Year.

Instead of telling God what you want to accomplish in the New Year, ask God what He wants from you this year! Click To Tweet

We’ve learned, when we ask God for what He wants from us, instead of us telling Him what we want, we have a better success rate of meeting our goals.

How We Prepare For A Successful New Year

Typically, we each choose to fast from something during the time we are seeking God. And when we do this, there are a few resources we use to prepare our spirit, our minds, and our finances!

How We Prepare Our Spirit

While we seek God through prayer, we are mindful to spend quiet time before the Lord, so we can hear from Him. We do this through reading His Word, and just being still doing nothing.

Bible: Since we made the Bible the final authority in our home, we use it as our standard for setting goals. God’s Word will never contradict itself.

So when He gives us something for the New Year, we make sure we heard Him right, by lining it up with His Word.

Embracing God’s Priorities: Although we wrote the book, we too need to remind ourselves of God’s priorities.

It’s the foundation of who we are as a family, and quite frankly, the reason we’re able to do all God has called us to without neglecting what matters most.

In the midst of striving towards our goals, we purpose not to lose sight of God’s priorities. By keeping this in the forefront of our minds, it prevents us from getting frustrated with the chaos of life.

 (Although our ebook is available to our email subscribers for free, we keep a paperback copy of the book on hand with our Bible for easy access!)

How We Prepare Our Minds

According to Forbes.com a survey shows visualizing success works.

“The survey results show that business owners who take the time to visualize their company are more successful and more likely to reach their goals than those who don’t,”

Sounds good, but Forbes wasn’t the first to say that. God did.

“Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.” ~ Habakkuk 2:2 (NKJV)

Whatever God has dropped in our spirit, we purpose to keep it in the forefront of our minds during the year.

Each of us will write down what God has given us in our own journals. Then we’ll write everyone’s goals on a family vision board.

Vision Board: This vision board is displayed on a white board and hung in the most prominent place in our home, our loft. That way, everyone can see it daily as a reminder.

We simply write down what God has given us for the New Year, giving no thought to the how.

From our experience, we’ve learned not to put God in a box. Our job is to let Him know our deepest hopes and dreams, and have faith in His Word.

“Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]” ~ Ephesians 3:20 (AMPC)

God’s job, is to see how our hopes and dreams come true. The slippery slope here is when we desire something that goes against God’s will for our lives.

When we do that, we might be disappointed in the outcome.  However, this can be avoided when we take the time to seek God first.

Throughout the year, we check off what’s been accomplished and whatever hasn’t, rolls on to the next year, along with our new goals!

Every year we’re amazed when we look at all that was accomplished by simply writing the vision, and making it plain.

How We Prepare Our Finances

The Bible tells us in Luke 16:10 that he who is faithful with little, will be faithful over much.

Therefore, we make it a priority to be good stewards over what God has given us, and update our family budget.

Family Budget: One of the most important lessons we learned in business was, the fastest way to increase our net income is to decrease our expenses.

So every year we re-evaluate our family budget; identifying areas that we can cut back, cut out, or in some cases add in.

Then we set goals for managing our debts, investments, savings’, including our giving.

When we take the time to tell our money where to go, we don’t have to wonder where it went.

“A budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.” ~ Dave Ramsey

By understanding our family budget at the beginning of the year, it helps us make wiser financial decisions during the year.

Encouragement For The Journey

Start right where you are.

No matter how small you think your efforts are towards your goals, do them. The only shots you miss are the ones you don’t take!

Review your goals regularly throughout the year.

We cannot express this enough. It’s very important to identify where you are along the way and be willing to make any adjustments.

This doesn’t mean that your goals will change. It just means that your method may need to change.

When we wait until the end of the year to discover our method isn’t working, it puts us in a position to miss the mark.

In The End

Dreams don’t work unless you do! Refuse to be among the 80% that give up on their goals.

Make the decision today to allow God to direct your steps in the coming New Year. After all, He is the one who placed those desires in your heart.

So tell us, how will you prepare for a successful New Year? Share it with us in the comments below!

 

 

~André and Timberley Gray