Setting ourselves up for failure - again

Over these next few days a large percentage of people who made New Year resolutions will abandon their good intentions and the changes in life style that they made just a few days ago.

When it comes to making resolutions that are to do with our relationship with God we should not be surprised that all of a sudden there are all kinds of distractions that get in the way. We are in a spiritual battle and Satan does not want to see us getting closer to God.

But are there other reasons why we struggle to stick to the choices we make which we know will be good for us?

Sometimes we make too many resolutions - there is too much change all in one go - we'd be better off making one or two resolutions rather than a whole list.

Sometimes our resolutions are too vague. Those of you who have followed this blog for a while will know that I run - or at least I ran. Over the last few months of 2014 my running dropped to nothing. Going from over 100 miles a month to 39 miles, to 8 miles, finally to 0 miles for December. So one of my resolutions for 2015 was to start running again. But that's quite a vague resolution - so to make it specific I set myself the goal of running 1000 miles in the year - which equates to just over 19 miles a week, which equates to about four 5 mile runs a week. So the initial resolution is to run 4 short runs a week, building up over a few weeks to 5 miles a time.

Sometimes our resolutions are too difficult. If you've never run, a resolution to run 1000 miles in 2015 might be a bit ambitious. When I started running again after a gap of six years I tried to run round a local park. This park was roughly square and the total distance round the path was about 0.7 miles. I didn't even manage one side of the square before I had to walk. So the plan was one lap, doing run-walk-run-walk. Every other day, doing more running and less walking. Eventually I could run a whole lap. But if you start off trying to do too much you either get discouraged and give up, or you get injured and have to stop. And so when we're thinking about our resolutions we need to be specific rather than vague, but we also need to be realistic.

One of the best pieces of advice to someone who wants to start running is to join a running club. Doing something with others is a lot easier than doing it on your own. On those wet, cold days when you really don't feel like getting your trainers on it's a lot harder to get out there and run (even though you know you'll feel great afterwards) if you're on your own. But if you've arranged to meet up with someone and you do it together you are much more likely to succeed. So having someone to support us and to encourage us and also to check up on us is a great help in succeeding at our resolutions.

In a couple of days we'll have a look at the sorts of resolutions it may be helpful to think about making.