It was the first week of January. My wife and I were new members of a national name health and fitness center and had gone to the club for our regular work out. As the attendant swiped our membership cards, I commented on the fact that the place was jammed. It appeared that every piece of exercise equipment in the facility was in use. I was not particularly encouraged at the thought of having to wait for an exercise machine like one has to stand in line at a theme park.

"Don't worry", said one of the trainers, "this won't last long. It's always this way at the beginning of the year."  My wife and I smiled knowingly. It was the New Year's resolution syndrome.

I don't know who did the study, but I have heard that a typical New Year' s resolution lasts an average of five days!  Mention the subject of New Year's resolutions in any group of people and someone is bound to Iaugh.

So what's wrong with making a New Year's resolution or a resolution any time of the year? I say, "Nothing." In fact I think it's a great idea and a good incentive to put into practice something we know we ought to be implementing in our lives. I'm increasingly convinced that we don't lack for information or even for conviction; what we do lack is the motivation--an excuse to do what we know we should be doing.

The beginning of a new year is as good an excuse as any and a better excuse than some to make positive improvements in our lives. After all, we see the end of the year as the closing of a chapter in our lives and the new year as symbolically opening a new page. So why not take advantage of the occasion to bring the high priority areas of our lives some needed upgrades.

But here is where the plot thickens. How can we find the time in our busy lives to do what needs to be done? And how can we make these needed improvements last?

Inasmuch as your life, such as it is, is already full—there are only 24 hours in a day--you will not be able to put something new into your life unless you take something else out to make room for it.

One day my wife asked me to go out to the car and get our son's dirty work clothes. It was raining hard, as it usually does on a summer afternoon in Florida where we live. So I took an empty clothes basket in one hand and an umbrella in the other and went out in the rain to get the clothes. I had to balance the umbrella while I put the clothes in the basket. As it turned out there were more dirty work clothes than there was room in the basket. But rather than make a second trip, I heaped the clothes up, actually overfilling the basket. I held the basket close to my body and returned to the house. But as I walked, some of the clothes began falling out onto the ground.
The clothes that fell out were not the ones that were securely inside in the basket but those what were heaped on top. Can you see it now? New Year's resolutions fail because they are usually piled on top of everything else we happen to be doing.

Life is all about time. If I want to add something new to my life, it will mean I must reorder my priorities. Adding the things to our lives that are most important will necessarily mean that we will have to take something else out to make room for them. Sometimes this may mean not only exchanging the bad for the good but often the better for the best.

The good part about bringing change into our lives is that we don't need to wait until the beginning of a New Year. There is really no reason why we shouldn't be making new resolutions on a daily basis. For His part, God is willing to give us a new beginning every day of the year.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote concerning the mercies of the Lord when he said that "they are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:23). If our God is willing to give us a new start every day, shouldn't we take Him up on it? Why not make the concept of New Year's resolutions a lifestyle!