Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question is your year already ruined

this is prompted by an article I read in

the Wall Street Journal by Stephanie

Harrison who was looking at New Year's

resolutions and the reason she was

looking at them is because right about

now is the time most people have either

quit their resolutions or are quickly

fading my guess is you might fit into

one of those categories and I I'll just

add a third category I think some people

know that about themselves so much that

they've punted on resolutions all

together so maybe you might find

yourself there uh but the data says

you're not alone overwhelmingly people

who make New Year's resolutions about

two or 3 weeks before they fade out but

I loved the point that Harrison was

making in her article and she said that

maybe the secret to why resolutions

don't make it the secret to why you

already feel like a failure is that our

resolutions tend to always be self

centered instead of others centered and

the research is interesting here because

science will tell us that you are far

less likely to keep a self centered goal

I need to lose weight I need to watch

less TV I need to read more than you are

to keep an others centered goal and

that's because you can let yourself off

the hook for letting yourself down but

when other people are counting on you it

gets a little harder and so the social

science actually says if you really want

to change if if you want to make New

Year's resolutions that stick you need

to make them not about yourself but

about other people and and this studies

here are fascinating a 2016 study showed

that if you do three acts of kindness

for other people in a day you massively

increase the happiness you feel that day

three acts of kindness a day will

actually make you happier in other words

by having a goal like hey I'm going to

do three nice things a day for someone

else you actually accomplish the goal of

I'm going to be happy this other

centered goal setting actually leads to

self fulfillment and the results you

were chasing in your self-focused goals

uh less than 50% of Americans are

satisfied with their lives in the

present moment and we keep thinking that

the way out of our dissatisfaction is

self-actualization but actually it

perpetuates the cycle I'm trying to fix

myself I can't seem to fix myself I'm

disgusted with myself round and round we

go I'm sure you felt this I I have felt

this and what Harrison's article is

saying is that the way out of that cycle

is to take your eyes off of yourself and

to put them on someone else one of my

favorite things to do on wake up lookup

is to show you how the things that

science is telling us or things the

Bible's been telling us for centuries

after all the Bible has been telling us

for a long time like in Acts 20 that it

is more blessed to give than to receive

that we will be happier that's what the

word blessed means we will be happier if

life is about giving than about getting

Jesus modeled this in John Chapter 13

when the disciples are arguing over

who's the greatest Jesus just gets a

bucket of water strips down to a towel

and begins washing feet because he

understands life is not about measuring

yourself with other people it's about

loving and caring for other people Jesus

tells us in Matthew 6 store up for

yourselves not Treasures in this life

but in the life to come don't don't

worry about yourself worry about other

people this reflects the nature and

character of God who wasn't content for

what he already had in heaven but came

to Earth in the person and work of Jesus

to draw Us in in the ultimate display of

other centeredness the Bible time and

time again particularly in the New

Testament calls us to a one another kind

of approach not self-fulfillment not

self-actualization not even self

improvement other centered one another

kind of growth so hey if you're feeling

frustrated and fatigued instead of

getting mad at yourself why don't you

just say okay I've gotten all my self-

centeredness all my self- fulfillment

all my self- focus out of my system the

New Year the real year starts today when

all my goals become about those around

me how can I I love them how can I serve

them how can I bless them and here's

what I think if you will reset your year

and make your resolutions starting now

about the people around you you will in

2025 far happier than you've ever been

not because I say so not even because

social science says so but because God

has been saying so for thousands and

thousands of years hey thanks so much

for watching this episode of wake up

lookup while you're here take a minute

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