Resolutions.

Now is the time of year when everyone reflects on what has happened the past year and what they've accomplished and what they want to change to make the next year better.

They create resolutions. After weeks of gorging on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's feasts, many resolve to lose weight, go on diets, eat healthier, exercise.... Some people make a resolution to quit bad habits (smoking, drinking too much) or to do something to make a difference.

They try to resolve to be a better person, in the vaguest of terms. People make vague general resolutions without any real plan or course of action to take to accomplish these resolutions. Many people have good intentions of accomplishing these goals, but after a few weeks the desire and willpower diminish and we find ourselves in the same cycle we have tried to escape by making resolutions.

The foundation of a resolution is hope. Hope that people can change their habits, change themselves, even change the world is what drives us every January to look back, determine the things we want to change, and then look forward with a goal in mind to make that change. Hope that we can achieve is the root of a resolution.

False hope is the real reason why many resolutions fall through. Most people determine their resolutions based on a focus of a past failure or lack of achievement. They seek to change themselves, but as they movie forward their hope soon vanishes as the focus on what they don't want to become, what they couldn't do in the past, what they haven't achieved.

Hope is not found in our past, but in our future. True hope is meant to anchor the soul so that we may stand firm on whatever we are trying to accomplish. We must have a clear cut vision of what we want the end result to be. Then, we focus on that.

hope for the future of Cambodia

When we are focused on what we want to accomplish in the future, rather than our past mistakes, we have a true hope that anchors our soul and pushes us through the hard times. When we are focused on the hope, that will bring faith and action, we make it past whatever trouble is trying to derail our hope and into the glorious light of achievement.

It is when we remove our eyes from what is ahead, and instead focus on the shortcomings of the past that we lose hope and fall back into our previous state. Hope always looks ahead. Hope always sees the good. Hope is always anchoring us to whatever we believe we can accomplish. Hope is ready to carry us through, and when paired with belief (faith) and action, will carry us through until we have accomplished what we have set out to do.

"This hope is what I anchor my soul on as I move forward..." 

Now, as we set a resolution, we must look ahead. We must see our goal, focus on it being achieved and allow hope to anchor our soul. This true hope is what will make our resolutions last all year, and into the years to come. This hope is what I anchor my soul on as I move forward, into new chapters in life. Everyday I look to who I want to be and what I want to accomplish, not who I was and didn't accomplish. And I resolve to do it.

Have hope.