The Key to a Successful Lifestyle Do you struggle with the annoying idea of a New Year’s Resolution? Most people do. I sure have. It’s a pain to set up New Year’s resolutions like, weight loss, more family vacations, new ideas, new commitments, or whatever, only to fall short, or plain fail two weeks later. Aggravating. Well, I’ve changed that. I quit the New Year’s resolutions idea a long time ago and decided to work on Lifelong Resolutions instead. This may sound like more work but hang with me. You’ll see how much better this is. Don’t get me wrong, I love starting fresh on some things. But sometimes, January 1st is not the ideal time to start something new. Sometimes, it’s when the old doesn’t produce anymore, then it’s time to refocus, restart and refresh. I believe in lifelong resolutions that help me focus in the direction to successfully step into achieving and living out my destiny. I recognize that in order for me to be the husband I need to be to my wife, the father to my children, the pastor to my church and the citizen to my community, while being content with myself, I must establish bite size goals for my vision and dreams to help me get there. More than that, living in a lifelong resolution state means I have to get my mind, my body and my spirit moving in the right direction with the right choices. So I use my mind – thinking and choosing – to make this happen. Truth is, what you think and choose will impact your mind, body and spirit – so much so, that it implements the thoughts that are entertained in your mind and heart. Here are 4 ways to a lifelong resolutions 1. Transform your mind by detoxing your thoughts. This may sound kind of funny because most people know about detoxing your body or your gut, but not your thoughts. Years ago I read two books by Neurologist Dr. Carolyn Leaf, who talks and writes extensively about this. Some of the things my wife and I do are: We pay attention to our thoughts. We’ve become aware of our thinking at different times. We know what sets us off thinking (positively, or fearfully), and begin to get any junk we see out of our minds. For example: If we find ourselves thinking negatively or fearfully, we try to change those thoughts immediately. One way we do this is by thinking the opposite. That’s the easy part. But then we take it a step further. You and I know that just thinking positive is not going to detox our thoughts and change things permanently. So we begin to find Bible scriptures that may relate with a nagging thought and begin to apply them and speak those words of that scripture every time the negative thought shows itself in our minds. 2. Transform your body by eating and fasting the God way. It’s amazing how much your body affects your thinking, your feelings and your everyday life.This is why there’s so much marketing in the “dieting” world.From books to videos to powders, and much more. Truth is, a simple guide to eating right and fasting right is essential to accomplish weight loss, but more importantly, a healthy lifestyle. You can download this free booklet I’ve put together to detailed the process of eating right and fasting right – the Bible way, that has worked for us and countless others. The simple steps to do this could be done in so many different ways that it would take too much space in this blog post that I decided to create a Pdf file on these 4 ways to a lifelong resolution 3. Transform your spirit by building a deeper relationship with Christ. God has and wants an amazing life for us – why not take advantage of establishing and building a strong and powerful relationship with him? Many people start off by establishing an exciting relationship with Jesus and then life happens.Along the way, discouragement sets in (just the everyday-part-of-life, type of stuff) and often people’s relationship with God begins to fade - much like in a marriage relationship. In a marriage relationship both husband and wife are responsible to re-ignite their marriage passion, love, commitment, happiness, etc.Sometimes is necessary to refocus, restart and refresh your marriage. When it comes to our relationship with God, the responsibility falls wholly in our hands. In other words, it’s up to me to keep my lamp ignited, my prayer life intact, and my life moving forward with excitement in Christ. God won’t do this for me. But He always gives me/us the grace to move forward successfully, with joy and power. Be mindful to be faithful in building that strong and exciting relationship with God. Again, practical steps are provided here for this.
4. Transform your home by building your relationships with your family Well, how much do we need to do with this one? “A lot” you’d probably say. And you’re right. Every family has different needs with different personalities and different learning skills, with different emotional make-up. Every home requires a slightly different approach. However, I’ve discovered, in my 28 years of marriage and over 30 years of ministry experience that every family has some commonalities and similar ways of operation. For example: Every family needs love, peace, attention, the need to belong and feel purposeful. One of the ways you can transform your home is by building your relationship with your family. This is a nice way to put it, but how do you package this? It takes hard work, but it’s not difficult work. It’s rather simple, easy and you can make it as much fun as you want. Don’t stress over building your relationship with your family, especially if you’re mostly familiar with media entertainment and expensive vacations.I explain more about this in my free Pdf. But for now, let me give you this: You first build your relationship with your family by being yourself. Don’t try to be like anybody else you know. Sure you can learn from others – we all do, but apply the lessons you learn to your own personality and family make-up. For example, here’s an idea: Take time to talk. In today’s society, social media is busier in terms of sharing with people what goes on in a person’s life than it is in the comfort and safety of their home. Kids share with their friends (and the entire world for that matter), before they share anything with their parents.This ought not be. So take times during the day and a special time once a week to talk to your kids. My wife and I do this in snippets of times during the day. We like to learn about their day, their interests and their ideas. We then take a once a week, meal, big breakfast or whatever, to talk and share. Sometimes these times are very casual and always fun. We laugh, we talk, we cut up, and we tease each other along with talking about serious matters.It’s fun. Get the idea? Sure you do. I have more practical ideas HERE to help you develop strong lifelong resolutions with your family. A New Year’s resolution? Naaahhh…. It’s a Lifelong resolution. It’s about who you are, and who you want to be or become. Question: What other Lifelong Resolutions have you implemented in your family? Be Awesome and Share below.
Comments
|
About the Author
Alex Colón, Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Teacher, Pastor, Blogger and best of all, Husband and Father of 4. Living the re-Branded life
|