Confessions of a CEO: My New Year’s Resolutions

If you made a New Year’s resolution at the beginning of 2013, then probably, by now, you will have discovered your probable success rate of keeping that life change.

Most likely one of the following scenarios is already clear to you:

• You have failed miserably and will never make another New Year’s resolution as long as you live.
• You are wavering; your resolution is becoming increasingly difficult and you are wilting with the passing of each day.
• You are deliriously excited about how successful you have been and wondering why you didn’t make the resolution five years ago.

No one really knows the exact origin of New Year’s resolutions. The most common thought is that it began with either the ancient Babylonians or the Romans. The Romans worshipped a two-headed god called Janus (from which the month of January is named), who had one head that looked back and another that looked forward. So the beginning of January was the time to do this. Much later, in the medieval era, knights made a vow at the beginning of each year to reaffirm their commitment to chivalry. I’m not sure that one has stuck too well!

One recent survey stated that the three most popular resolutions people make are:

• To spend more time with family and friends
• To get fitter and make exercise a more regular part of life
• To “tame the bulge” by eating both less and more healthily.

As I mentioned at the beginning, this month will have indicated to you already your ‘scoresheet’ for the resolutions you may have made. Another survey suggested there is an 88 per cent fail rate on these promises we make to ourselves.

Before we all get depressed at our lack of tenacity, let me suggest a few ‘Compassion sponsor resolutions’ that would prove wonderfully fruitful in the year(s) ahead:

• Pray regularly for your sponsored child and their family. A couple of years ago, I made the commitment to pray for sponsored children before my feet hit the ground in the morning.
• Write to your sponsored kids. It is hard to articulate just how much this means to a child who is living with the devastation of poverty. I still remember meeting a young boy in Rwanda who, after many years, was still carrying around the first letter he received from his sponsor in his back pocket.
• Pray for us at Compassion Australia. We are always wanting to develop procedures and systems that benefit the children we serve and also facilitate a continuously improving experience for supporters.

My New Year’s resolution is to continually monitor my alignment with God’s heart of compassion, and determine what actions to counter injustice I am going to tackle as part of my faith in action.

These are just my suggestions for some New Year’s resolutions that will have widespread impact for the Kingdom of God. You may have many more.

Blessings,
Tim

Dr Tim Hanna is Compassion Australia’s CEO. Married to Chris, they have nine children (yes, you read correctly) and 16 grandchildren (so far). He loves to spend time with his family and travelling, which is fortunate considering he does a lot of it as he leads Compassion Australia’s ministry in more than 26 developing nations.