Resolution prep 101

The first step to setting goals for your new year is to look at the last year. You can't honestly set goals for this year until you take a good look at what you accomplished last year and the year before. You need to know who you are, where you are in your life, and where you are headed before you can set goals for yourself. I remember as a teenager setting goals and making resolutions for myself only to figure out that those goals had nothing to do with me, my life, or where God was taking me. I was shooting air balls all over the place trying so hard to set goals and resolutions that it was as if I didn't know myself at all. Paul learned to set goals for himself by erasing the past. We can't erase it completely but we must forget our failures. So many times we set a goal for ourselves based on one that we failed or fell short of before, and this is not a good process at all.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
If you truly want to be successful in 2010, you have to forget the shortcomings of 2009. If you are still living in 2009, then 2010 will be a miserable time for you and your goals. In sports there are a lot of athletes that need to have a short memory, quarterbacks and kickers in football need these. If a quarterback throws an interception he has got to forget about that the next time he gets ready to throw a pass. Same with kickers, if he gets ready to kick a field goal thinking about the last one he missed, then he will be in bad shape for sure. In baseball, I think pitchers have it worse. You throw a pitch and the hitter drives it out of the park for a homerun, then you watch him trot around the bases with his chest out and head swelling. You watch the other team celebrate with him at homeplate after he crosses, and then your catcher sets up and you have to throw another pitch, many times the same pitch that you missed location with less than a minute ago. We need to put the past years dealings behind us in order to accomplish big things for God next year. Paul says he forgets what is in teh past, an strains ahead for the goal. Hopefully your goal is to bring glory to God, and with His help you can forget the times that you fell short and move forward with boldness.
Forget yesterday, enjoy today, prepare for tomorrow!
Thanks for reading and have a great day!