Taking Ownership is Way More Powerful than a New Year’s Resolution
By: Kyle Chastain
Tags: New Year, Christianity, Personal Development, Advice, Goals

Can I tell you a secret?

Those resolutions you made for the new year–the one where you lose the weight, find Mr. Right, kick the habit, and go to the gym every day–you’ll probably give up on those within a couple of weeks. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

It’s hard to say exactly how long New Year’s resolutions last. The athletic social networking site Strava analyzed data from 800 million user-logged activities and concluded that most people give up on their resolutions on January 19.

If you’re reading this, you’re likely one of those statistics.

It’s not that the resolutions you make are too hard, it’s that you let yourself slide back into the familiar patterns of last year. You deal with the same old stresses, face the same old problems, and fight the same old battles. And don’t worry, it happens to everyone.

A lot of the reasons you give up on sticking to changes in the new year are within your control. The problem is, it’s easier to blame someone or something else.

What’s more powerful than a New Year’s resolution?

A quick Google search on “how to keep your new year’s resolutions” yields 58,700,000 results. Have fun reading through those tonight.

I don’t have tactics for keeping your New Year’s resolutions. That would imply that I am some kind of guru. What I have is a radical idea that–if you embrace it–could change everything for you.

Do you want to know what’s way more powerful than a New Year’s resolution?

Taking ownership of your life.

Ownership vs. victimhood

Last Christmas, FedEx lost a package containing the main gift that my wife and I were going to give to our 3-year-old. It was a swing set with an attached slide–something he’d begged for a few months leading up to the holidays.

Now I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I don’t really understand how something as large as a swing set can get lost. But regardless, the package never arrived at our house and it was a little more than a week before Christmas. I had to go through the hassle of filing a claim and figuring out what to do because the company that sold the swing was sold out by this time.

After I filed the claim with FedEx, I got a voicemail from someone that started with:

“Hello my name is John Smith and I wanted to let you know that I’m taking ownership of this claim…”

Taking ownership.

Not, “I’m handling your claim.” Not even, “I’ll be helping you with your claim.” Taking ownership.

It’s funny how a single word can shift your perspective.

Ownership says it’s on me. It’s a powerful word that cuts off any possibility of assigning blame to another and becoming a victim.

Too many people who make New Year’s resolutions don’t take ownership of the right things in life. You can blame everyone from the president to your parents for why life isn’t going your way. But I’m learning if you want to see different results in life, you have to take responsibility and ownership for those changes. Of course, it’s easier to blame others than take ownership of things like:

Your health

Your mindset

Your relationships

Your faith

Your time

All the categories you make resolutions for are the components that make our lives what they are. But instead of taking ownership of them, you’d rather blame someone else for the way they are.

I don’t blame you. Taking ownership is too personal, too painful, and forces us to take responsibility.

But taking ownership is exactly what helps you move forward in life.

Fertilize your figs

There’s a strange story in the Bible that Jesus tells his students about taking ownership.

In the story, a man plants a fig tree in his garden and the tree doesn’t bear any fruit. Now, fig trees are notoriously difficult to maintain. But the owner of the tree insists the tree should be cut down after three seasons of bearing no fruit. So he instructs his gardener to cut down the tree, but the gardener protests saying:

“Sir, give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I’ll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. If we get figs next year, fine. If not, then you can cut it down.” (Luke 13:8,9 NLT)

Do you see what happened there? The gardener takes personal ownership of the tree and the outcome.

The owner was ready to abandon it. But the gardener took ownership and gave the tree one final shot.

What would happen if, this year, you took ownership of your life?

But there are so many things I can’t control like this pandemic, you say.

Okay. But you can say that about anything in life. The gardener didn’t take ownership of the fig tree because he could control the tree’s growth. He could only take ownership of his actions in helping it grow.

And what does the gardener say will happen if the tree fails to grow? He’ll cut it down.

Taking ownership of your life doesn’t mean you get to control the outcome of what happens. It means you recognize your responsibility in the process. If things don’t work out in your favor or you fail to reach a goal, you can always “cut it down” and move on to the next thing.

You don’t need to wait for a new year to take ownership of your life.

Fast forward one year

How different would your life look in 12 months if you took ownership of how you feel, the way that you respond to others, and the thoughts you entertain?

Your dreams of being happier, more successful, or healthier are within your reach. But if you make excuses for why you can’t change, no amount of resolutions will stick.