New Year’s resolutions: they’re easy to make, and easy to break.

In fact, according to a 2007 study by professor and psychologist Richard Wiseman, 88% of the people who make New Year’s resolutions fail to achieve their goal. (Click here for his latest blog post on “How to Keep your New Year’s Resolution.”)

It’s not too late to revise your resolutions in case you’re setting yourself up for failure! Let’s look Biblically at one factor in making your New Year’s resolutions successful: Considering them carefully to make sure they are achievable.

In speaking of the costs of becoming one of his disciples, Jesus gave these two examples:

If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? Otherwise, when you had laid the foundation but couldn’t finish the tower, all who see it might start laughing at you. They will say, “Here’s the person who began construction and couldn’t complete it!”

Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand soldiers could go up against the twenty thousand coming against him? And if he didn’t think he could win, he would send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while his enemy was still a long way off. (Luke 14:28–32)

Isn’t it a good idea to sit down and calculate the “cost” of each resolution you might make, and consider whether you can realistically achieve it?

After all, if you don’t achieve it, you’ll feel defeated, and it will actually make it harder to change your life for the better in the future, as you limp along in life berating yourself for your weakness, lack of willpower, and so on. It’s better not to make any resolution at all than to make a resolution and fail.

However, it’s even better to make an achievable resolution, and succeed!

For more on calculating the cost of your resolutions, please click here to read on.