Top 3 New Year Resolutions 2011

Research for New Year Resolutions Statistics has shown that:

•  63% of people are still keeping their resolutions after the first two months.
• 67% of people actually make 3 or more resolutions.
• The top resolutions usually involve promises to exercise more (37%), increasing the time devoted to study or work (23%), losing weight, stop smoking or drinking (alcohol and/or coffee), and eat healthier.
• People make more resolutions to start a new habit (84%), than to break an old one (16%).
• 65% of people made their resolutions between the 28th of December and New Year's Day. The rest usually take up until the end of January.
• Of those who successfully achieved their top resolution, 40% of them did so on the first attempt. The rest made multiple tries, with 17% finally succeeding after more than six attempts.

(Source: Google. Confirm by: Experiences. Outcome: Laugh)

You open your calendar for December 2010 and realized that it will come to an end soon. Then you received a sms and when you open the inbox it said, 'See you next year!' You laugh, grin and smile back at the device as if the device was a being. Then, you replied, 'Its 2 days before New Year, you silly~". He thinks you don't get the joke. You think you get it, but not so until he started asking, ‘What are your resolutions next year?’ 'I don't know.’ Then a killer question slashed like lightning of thunder from Zeus's throne beginning with 'Did you....’
Did you manage to reach you last year resolutions?

That was the mark of the end of texting communication.
This year I want to share with you all about a noble goals and I believe that both you and I MUST (not should) attain to achieve. These are the goals that we need to work out together with much prayer and anticipations. It's a universal goal (and some may not agree). It's a spiritual goal, a long journey. It's a goal worth struggle for, worth invests on for and it's the choice of a life time. Here are 3 goals that we MUST do together:

1. Knowing God (Who He is)
'For a long time J.I. Packer's Knowing God was a foundational text... while still popular, Packer's book has been somewhat displaced in recent years by Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God. The titles reflect this shift from knowing to experiencing. In a postmodern world, emotions are the final judge of what makes something good, true and right', writes Walt Mueller. By really knowing Him, we can have an unshakable faith that no matter what happen or feeeeeeeeeeeling we get, we know that there's God in Heaven. Faith is not measure by emotion.

Duration: Starting now until eternity.
How: Read and study the Bible (and understand it), have a conversation with Him frequently- pray, share with one another about your 'finding' and do an intellectuals studies (history) and ask questions.

2. Having a personal relationship with God.
Knowing is not enough. I know who is Barack Obama and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak but I have no personal relationship with them. The author of The Jesus who never Lived, H. Wayne House writes this in his preface, "My desire is that the... reader will receive knowledge of the real Jesus amid the current contention that there are a number of equally legitimate understandings of Jesus."

Duration: Starting now until the end of this earthly life. (From there He will decide either to continue it or not.)
How: Have a conversation with Him frequently - pray. Dedicate or rededicate your life to Him. Answer this question: "Am I worship the Real God?"

[If you have goals to break or stop bad habits like I do, this is good news for us. Once first 2 goals above are increasingly made into realizations, these bad habits will decrease and soon stop (but not instantly).]

3. Live an authentic Life
By authentic I means is 'not false, copied or imitation' but a real and genuine one. Not being someone you're not nor have a double life. Have an authentic faith. "What you see is what you got" principle.

Duration: This year, next year and forever.

How: Accomplish the first 2 goals and you'll know how.

Include this 3 in your other goals for next year. Write it down. Adjust the 'how'. We do it together; you and me. When someone asks, "Did you manage to reach you last year resolutions?”

You can proudly say now, "Not all. But this I will do; Knowing God, to have a personal relationship with Him and to live an authentic life... How about you?"

Oh may I add something interesting on the statistics above;

You are 10 times more likely to attain your goal, rather than people who don't explicitly make goals.