Resolve is a firm determination to do something. I have said that where achievement once mattered, resolve must take its place. We want to achieve a lot of things. Purchase of a house, stability in our careers, savings for retirement, etc.

All of these things are measured and given an aim or end point. When we were younger we learned achievement either athletically through competition or academically with our grades. The point was always this: resolve, or the ability and character to stick to our word and fulfill a desire. Fearlessly.

I don’t think that resolve is prevalent in our times. It was always encouraged when I was younger, but now as an adult I see a lot of people taking shortcuts. We’re wanting to cut out our skills for sake of convenience and it shows. Achieving something is not a direct symbol of Strength. It is the character we develop and share along the way.

There is a quote: “Fulfillment lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.”

I love this. It speaks Truth, but I don’t think that it has to be rare. Resolve has taught me a lot about myself in 2018 and going into 2019. At first, it taught me a lot about who I was not and could not be, and then, I learned that I was much more than I ever thought I could be and that I don’t have to bend or conform to the expectation and standards that feel absent to me.

With this I grew on six skills. The ability to Trust. Growth of sensibility. Letting go of judgment. Higher morale. Better ways of communicating and connecting with people. Strength of forgiveness.

These skills are all byproducts of Resolve and the direct outcome of my two core values. Attunement and Perspective. Attunement is what I consider my connection to the world. Perspective is my ability to shape the world. With these I can share what I love about life and what I believe comes to make us either weak or strong. Not judgmentally based, but simply for observation and inquiry.

Many of us will be taking on new goals for the new year, but I don’t feel those aims have to be new. They just have to be refurbished, so to speak, from things that we’ve let slip with time. If you set a new resolution on top of the many things you already have going on, then you will end up making the same poor choices and even more of a mess. Aiming with resolve to settle the matters you already have at hand will encourage you to make different choices. This is the point. We have to make different choices to get different results.

That, to me, is Resolve. Happy New Year!