Key for Succeeding at your 2019 New Year's Resolution: A Prayer for Self-Motivation

Love 'em or hate 'em, the month of January brings a whole lot of talk about New Year's resolutions. This annual tradition of a personal commitment to change, to do differently, and hit refresh is rooted in a virtue that Ben Franklin valued: resolution. One of our founding fathers, Franklin wrote: 

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

A blog "The Art of Manliness" applauds Franklin's determination. It says:

If you are to succeed in life, you must develop the virtue of resolution. Resolution is the firm determination to accomplish what you set out to do. Ben included resolution as his fourth virtue, because attaining it would ensure he would work through the other nine. 

I’ve seen countless people set out with the best intentions, only to fail because their resolution was weak. But I’ve also seen many others succeed despite the odds because their resolve to achieve consumed them. 

One of Franklin's 13 Virtues listed in his Pursuit for the Virtuous Life, McKay has additional tips on how you might develop resolution...which might move toward success achieving your 2019 resolution! I would, however, like to offer an additional recommendation.

St. Augustine wrote "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." And so, this year, why not offer the prayer for self motivation?

This belief is affirmed by Eric Liddell, one of my personal and spiritual heroes, who shared a beautiful truth with a crowd after a race when he said, "Where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within." The movie "Chariots of Fire" reveals Liddell's conviction—that with God, all things are possible. His faith is the source of his power. 

Let us offer a prayer to cultivate the power from within—self motivation. Let this prayer be one that affirms resolution in your life and the life of others.

Omnipotent God, vitality of life, Your strength supplies my motivation. I am stirred in the path of Your Will. Maintain my self-motivation to always Search, find, examine, will and act Upon the truths placed before me. May I become a driving force for others, encouraging them to pick up their crosses And follow the virtuous road of life. I thank You for Your continued vigor That coexists in my whole being, My soul, my spirit and my body!Amen

Happy New Year! Here's to 2019!! (Go Irish, implied)

Photo Credits

What Kind of School of Virtue Are We Running?

The Blessed John Paul II said, “Sports are a real school of true human virtue.” It seems that recent events in the wide world of sports have challenged this maxim. The greed of the NBA lockout, the misguided sense of loyalty in the Penn State scandal and at the high school cross country state meet in Natchitoches, Louisiana a feat that many describe as “inspiring” have left me wondering: What kind of school are we running? Are our students, or in this case our athletes failing or thriving? And ultimately without true human virtue, what is at stake?

It’s unfortunate that for the second year in a row the only press for a sport as demanding as cross-country features a runner collapsing at the state meet finish line. Last year, Holland Reynolds, University High School’s number two runner crawled across the finish line on her hands and knees to complete her race. In doing so, she helped her team clinch the California state championship. This year Christian Bergeron of Covington, LA shares that story.

Due to extreme dehydration on-set by unseasonable heat and humidity – the senior collapsed four times in the final 25-yards of the race. With the heat index above 80 degrees (weather is nearly 20 degrees cooler by this point in the season), it’s no surprise that the St. Paul’s varsity runner’s legs buckled and body crumbled.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune described his feat by reporting “Of all the inspiring moments of determination you see in the remaining months of 2011, it's unlikely any can top the heroics turned in by one high school senior” on Monday November 14, 2011. The local news channel commented on the power of the human will and how "moments like this make a parent proud even though they may be ones a parent would rather forget."

I watched Christian’s feat and I was horrified. I heard words like “inspiring” and “perseverance” and I looked around me. What school of virtue is athletics teaching? Is my moral compass off? Is the media’s?

This young man nearly died. He could not even see the finish line. The officials did not help him to or through the finish line. I won’t go so far as to say they were bystanders but there is much more at stake to me than finishing a race or earning a title.

The word “inspire” stems from what else—spirit—to breathe. To be inspired is to be filled with the breath (of God). The only inspiration I find in this story is that Bergeron is sharing his story to illustrate the importance of having of an EMT and ambulance on site for big athletic competitions. His mother, a nurse, was aware that he needed immediate medical attention.

In the Newsweek article “What is Virtue?” Ken Woodward states "cultivation of virtue makes individuals happy, wise, courageous, competent. The result is a good person, a responsible citizen and parent, a trust- leader, possibly even a saint. Without a virtuous people, according to this tradition, society cannot function well. And without a virtuous society, individuals cannot realize either their own or the common good."

I hope we can recognize as heroic as Christian Bergeron’s feat may appear, we take his story as another example among many to determine what true human virtue may be. The stakes in our society are too high not to…

Photo Credits
Sports Illustrated Cover
State Meet Finals
Virtue

Overrated: Sports as a School of Virtue...?

Sports are a real school of true human virtue. –John Paul II

Who am I to disagree with (now) Blessed John Paul II, but have your ever thought we put too much power and pressure on sports as a moral training ground? We hope that our favorite athletes will serve as role models; we want our coaches to teach us skills, devise game plans and assemble a group of athletes that really believes that there is no “I” in team. We want to know that under pressure we will show integrity, exhibit courage and be selfless; we know sports will reveal this. When it comes to athletics, have we become overly concerned with both the inner and outer scorecard? Does it carry more weight than it should?

To a large extent, I hope it does. Pope Benedict the XVI stated Sport possesses considerable educational potential particularly for young people. So, for this reason, sport is of great importance not only when applied to free time but also in the formation of each individual. And yet, I wonder, does everything, including our leisure as sport need to be viewed as a means to an end? I think Patrick Kelly provides an interesting answer.

In his article Experiencing Life’s Flow, Kelly says The word autotelic is derived from the Greek words auto, self, and telos, goal, and suggests that the goal is within the activity itself. In terms of sports, the games would be played for their own sake. This emphasis differs from what is usually set forth as a rationale for the value of sports for young people: that participation in sports will build character or help prepare them for life or for competition in the business world. Some parents and young people also view sports as a way of gaining upward mobility. Usually the emphasis is on some goal outside the activity of sport; little attention, however, is given to the enjoyment of the activity itself.

I know parents who have given their children fencing lessons because the elite sport is popular at many Ivy League colleges. Experience in fencing was a means to an end—a distinctive edge on a college application. Upward mobility in a nutshell. Yet, let's be honest. Most people learn and participate in a sport for the enjoyment of it.

I think the movie “Soul Surfer” is an accurate description of autotelos. This movie, still in some theaters is about the life of surfer Bethany Hamilton, who lost her left arm in a shark attack when she was 13 years old. The title is a word play on the term soul surfer, coined in the 1960s to denote someone who surfs purely for pleasure. As Bethany learns to live with one arm, she learns a whole lot about herself as she struggles to determine what is more important—winning or the sport itself. Surfing and surfers are like no other. It’s innately spiritual; they are too.

I believe autotelos could apply to the spiritual life as well. We hope that our commitment to prayer will lead to inner peace, that our prayers will be answered, that we will grow more patient and loving in the process of learning to trust God. And we should. Yet, can we come to recognize that time with God in prayer is gift itself. To simply avail ourselves to God’ presence is to be with the source and center of life. Can we enjoy and appreciate just that? Ultimately, our commitment to deepening one’s relationship to God will bear great fruit. But can we be content with the grace of God in and of itself?

I wish our society shifted its mindset. It’s not easy to do. We love sports because of the clear answers they provide—win or lose, in or out, fair or foul, game on or time out. And we know the spiritual life doesn’t always give us the answers; all too often, the math doesn’t add up. But I do think the grace of a spiritual life is that it helps us live with the questions. And the grace of athletics is we really do have experiences that prove when tested, we can do that. When the questions are too difficult, we don’t face them alone. A team or coach and lift us up, above the hardwood or moral training ground. Take your pick.

Photo Credits
John Paul II hosts a mass for athletes
No "I" in "Team" shirt
Soul Surfer Movie Poster
The real Soul Sufer!