Willpower! Do you have what it takes?

As we put Christmas 2011 behind us and look forward to the beginning of 2012, many of us are thinking about what we want to accomplish, what we want to do differently and steps we will take to make a difference.  Many will engage in making New Years Resolutions and will start the year with a bang, convinced this is the year they will make a difference.  Unfortunately, many of these resolutions will fail from lack of one thing.....WILLPOWER!  Too many times, we just don't have the willpower to make a change.

I submit, many of the problems our country is experiencing is due to lack of willpower.  Businesses, politicians and citizens simply don't have willpower, to make the tough choices required to achieve better results. Politician's concerns for getting votes, makes it too difficult for them to make the tough choice of refusing to keep spending money. Business leaders are too focused on short-term stock prices to make the tough choices needed for long-term viability. Citizens are too worried about buying the next gadget, to make the tough choices to save their money, instead of spending.  The need to have the latest edition of a product; please some constituency, meet some shareholder's demand, cause many problems that could be avoided, if we simply had willpower.

How many gym memberships won't be used by the end of January?  How many credit cards will be cut up, only to have new ones replace them?  How many will start online education and then quit after one semester? How many will start the year regularly attending church only to quit once a winter storm arrives?  How many marriages will fail because involved parties give up? There are many other areas, but you get the point.  Our lives don't change, simply because we lack the commitment to follow through and the desire to make needed changes; quite simply we lack WILLPOWER.  Too many people's physical, financial, spiritual and relational well being will not be as good as it could, because they don't have the willpower to follow through and make a real difference.

What could we accomplish if we exercised our willpower?  What kind of improvement would we see in the lives of our friends, families, communities and our country if we stuck to it?  Think about areas in your life that you need to change, make those changes and then have the WILLPOWER to make it happen.  I bet your 2012 will be much better than your 2011!

Now, I'm going to have that piece of pie I've been trying to resist:)

Happy New Year!