January First - Ready...Set...Resolution
"I'm going to exercise more this year!" "I'm going to read more books." "By July I'm going to be eating healthier!" "We're really going to start saving money this year." Listen to that chorus of resolutions! It must be January 1st, aka, the day when the world's entire population realizes another year is beginning and feels the sudden compulsion to better themselves with new, if predictable, habits picked with almost religious reverence. Unfortunately for the resolve-driven masses, statistics reveal that over 80% of all New Year's resolutions fail midway through February before ever making a useful impact. As staggering as this calculation sounds, the truth in it is understood by everyone who has tried, and inevitably failed, a bold New Year's goal.
Read Four Pro-Life Books and Recommend Them to Two Friends.
Making changes or bettering yourself is difficult, sisyphean at times, so one could ask why try to change at all? Because, if it's really important...the difficulty will be worth it in the end, says the short, gift-wrapped answer to this question. While fundamentally correct, this idea is really only good for early motivation, and has to be backed up by real, concreate details in order to actually end in finished goals, motivating enough to surmount road blocks and slip-ups once encountered. Details reveal starting places, offer opportunities to pick up from short of returning to the absolute beginning, and help flesh out goals through more finish-line oriented thinking. For instance, it is more inspiring to say, "I'm going to spend two hours on Mondays and Wednesdays praying outside of Planned Parenthood," than "I'm going to pray outside of abortion clinics more often this year." The fleshed-out goal paints a picture of what the task looks like and allows the resolutioners to attack the new habit with more practical enthusiasm than ever before. Now, with all that in mine, let's set some Pro-Life goals for this coming year.
Take a moment to consider what you can do for the Pro-Life Movement. What skills, passions, or knowledge can you offer to the cause? Is there a unique or dedicated part of yourself that can enrich your own experience, that of those around you, or the people you are trying to help? Picture that contribution as clearly as you can and manifest the motivation to use it over the course of the next year. Now, what does that contribution look like, broken up into manageable steps? Does it include a first act? A scheduled timeline? A collaboration with your fellow Pro-Lifers? Can you begin to follow those steps? Do so and you will have taken the biggest and most difficult leap towards a completed goal. One you can be very proud of at this time next year. Not every step in between start to finish will be smooth or profound, but they all mean something if they are taken in the name of continuing your goal and contributing to one of the most important movements of our time. Remember to keep moving, return to the work should you stumble or miss a step, and (like every important change) keep in mind that The Hardest Goals are Completed Because They Were Important Enough to Endure.
Pray Outside an Abortion Clinic for Two Hours, Twice a Week.
Read Four Pro-Life Books and Recommend Them to Two Friends.
Volunteer at a Pro-Life Organization for Two Hours, Once a Week.
Finally, regardless of the goals you set, their attainability, or your ability to seem them through, the most important idea to take with you into this next year is the understanding that a new year is beginning, carrying with it the chance to do some truly dedicated if not profound work for the Pro-Life Movement. As long-time or newly-minted Pro-Lifers, we have all been placed at a unique point in history that will define the current of society now and for years to come. When all is said and done, what would you like to have contributed to that definition? Will you be able to hold your head up with the knowledge that you did all you could (inexperience, fear, and mistakes included), or will you have lacked the courage to take that big first step at all? Just as this is a moment in history, it is also a crossroads in time for you.
Beyond any talk of goal-setting and the like, it is very important that you pick which side of this history chapter you want to be on. You are already Pro-Life (you wouldn't read these words if you weren't), but do you hold your values esteemed enough to actually act on them or are they to remain proud words forever resigned to the dust bin 80% of good intentions end up in? What can you do for the Pro-Life Movement? Is it worth the time, dedication, and difficulty? Are you ready to take a leap big enough to span time and a cause? Ready...Set...Resolution!
