Shifting from Resolutions to Being Resolute

Rev. Katrena King
Feb. 3, 2026

It’s that time again… You’ve made it past the bleary-eyed days between Christmas and New Year’s and perhaps now you know what day it actually is. You know, the day where you finally realize that there’s no way that you can stick to your long list of resolutions. Or maybe you committed to a single one and you’ve already failed to do or not do whatever it is. If you’re anything like me, you probably had great intentions. And then, there’s the timing of life swiftly knocking those intentions off to the wayside. Trust me, it happens to the best of us.

We’ve historically utilized New Year’s as a chance to refresh, make a change, and sometimes even forget the old.[1] And yet, why does January 1 hold all the power? Couldn’t any day be an occasion for a fresh start? While the scriptures don’t give us any particular guidance relating to the first of the year, they do help us find familiarity with God’s timing. We often find ourselves desperately seeking time for all the things that we’ve got going on in our overstimulated and oversaturated lives. Lest we not forget that Ecclesiastes has already laid out a playbook for us:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.[2]

While Ecclesiastes only shares a few examples, the scripture does cover a lot of ground. And really, it touches on important counterpoints for the places where we might find ourselves, for better or worse. Sometimes we get stuck where we are, especially if we make a misstep in our own eyes. We might wallow for a bit before we gather the courage and strength to move ourselves forward. And you know what? That is okay. God doesn’t expect perfection, even if we expect it from ourselves.

Did you know that women, in particular, struggle with perfection? Dr. Margie Warrell says that “We women are often our own harshest critics,” “[…] particularly prone to self-criticism and second-guessing ourselves.”[3] She goes on to cite an article by the International Journal of Behavior Science suggesting that high achieving women are disproportionately affected by imposter syndrome.[4] This means that women may “experience intense feelings that their achievements are undeserved and worry that they are likely to be exposed as a fraud.”[5] On top of this, women more often assess themselves lower, even when actually receiving higher performance ratings than men.[6]

The list of ways we criticize ourselves is endless. We find ourselves filled with shame and hold ourselves to unrealistic, self-imposed standards. And yet—there’s space for growing edges here. How can we shift our mindset from simply crossing off a list of resolutions, to instead becoming resolute? Merriam-Webster defines the word “resolute” as being “marked by firm determination.”[7] I read nothing here about perfection. Being determined isn’t about getting things exactly right. It’s about having a sense of purpose behind what you are doing, it’s about moving towards that goal. Resoluteness is about weathering life’s joys and challenges, anticipating the unanticipated, and, of course, practice.

When it comes to resolutions, tasks lead to habits lead to goals—but practice, practice is how we get there. One of my New Year’s resolutions is getting comfortable with stillness and silence. A dear friend once said to me, “Do we not know how to be with ourselves?” That thought continues to resonate with me. What is it like to truly be still, be silent, to listen and quiet my spirit? I recently led a small Taizé service in anticipation of Christmas. The most challenging part was sitting in complete silence for ten minutes. Later, several participants reflected that the silence was deafening, while others said they had completely forgotten what it feels like.

Though getting comfortable with stillness and silence was something I sought out to achieve this year, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to actually accomplish that. Is this the result of unrealistic goal-setting? Probably. Have I heard a lot more noise in the last month than I have spent in silence? Definitely. Does this mean I’ve failed? No, it means I have work to do. If I truly have a purpose behind this work, I can move away from the mindset of achieving a resolution to becoming more resolute. One of these has an endpoint—the other doesn’t.

Consider what it is that you were hoping to do this year, then consider what it might be like if you don’t reach that goal. And then, remember that we are often too hard on ourselves and new years are just arbitrary. However, this doesn’t mean that we give up when we are unsuccessful. We have the agency, each morning, to start anew. We shouldn’t limit the success of our entire year to the confines of one day: the whole world is ahead of us and it is full of opportunity.

King is the director of monitoring and resource development for the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women.