A new year means a new beginning – a chance to start over and hopefully get it right this time. So if you’re just sitting down with a fresh piece of paper to chart your course for the next twelve months – here’s my two-bits worth of wisdom: if nothing changes – nothing changes.

Our mistake is in hoping against all reason that things are somehow just going to be better this year. But one of life’s immutable laws (#19!) says that doing the same thing tends to produce the same results. Now I can hear you saying that you just made a New Year’s resolution and vowed that this year things are going to be different. Nothing wrong with that. Resolutions are fine as far as they go. But if, two weeks from now, things are pretty much back to where they were – then nothing has really changed, has it?

What the problem? I hope you’re sitting down for this: it’s YOU that needs to change, not your circumstances! We populate our world with the children of our character. When we change who we are, little by little our world changes to reflect who we are. I know – changing yourself is not easy. But neither is it impossible. After all, personal transformation is almost God’s entire program for us all. All the resources of heaven are therefore at our disposal.

So take a deep breath and say it out loud: “This year I am going to change myself. And as I do, I am going to change the world!”