This past week on my Facebook Ministry Page, I had a #LIVE discussion about ways to make a difference in your own life, in your family, and in your community in 2017.  To be honest, I’m just not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions.  They’re way too easy to break.  So in my discussion on Facebook, I wanted to look beyond the ‘normal’ or ‘traditional’ resolutions that everybody seems to try!

I really want to encourage you to make a ‘real-deal’ attempt at following through with.  Something to remember, it typically takes 21 days to turn a habit into a routine, so don’t give up quickly!  You can do it!

Here are several suggestions that we discussed that will help you kickstart your 2017 that are BEYOND the traditional ‘quit smoking and/or drinking and/or cussing!

Things you can STOP doing:

• Eating unhealthy
• Spending too much time worrying
• Spending too much time on social media
• Giving the wrong people the right to ‘speak’ into your life
• Focusing on the storms in your life
• Trying to get ahead of God

Things you can START doing:

• Attending church
• Reading your Bible daily
• Quality prayer time every day
• Change your attitude
• Clean up your language
• Be more positive, than negative
• Encourage others
• Make a stronger commitment in your church
• Being more conscious about your health
• Love your spouse more
• Love your children more
• Listening
• Do something challenging
• Be wiser to time management
• Prayer walk your neighborhood
• Prayer walk your local mall
• Go out to the end of your driveway, pray for your neighbors, as far as you can see!
• Budgeting your money
• Start a Christmas Club account at your local bank to pay for NEXT year’s Christmas gifts
• Make sure your Social Media posts are positive, and NOT negative

Remember, it’s not so much about setting ‘goals’, but setting attainable ‘growth steps.’

I also introduced a very simple, ‘do-able’ plan for making small strides in 2017.  I call it ‘The 5×5 Plan’.  You can read about it here.

If you have any thing else that you can add to these lists, please leave them in the comments, I would love to hear from you!!

Good luck getting started!  You can do it!