January always offers a brand new beginning. It’s an unspoiled book of blank pages; an uncharted sea; an untraveled road, an unused dream. Wouldn’t it be great if for just one year, everything happened right on schedule and exactly according to your master plan? Or would it? Sometimes the unexpected is the greater experience.

Observations on how to have a new you for the New Year:

1.  Remember that permanent change is inward; temporary change is outward.

2.  Our attitude must be right.

We usually start out this year by cleaning out the refrigerator…there is no room for leftovers! We need to do that with our lives as well. What are your remnants of last year? Failure? Mistakes? Success? Anger? Triumphs? Anxieties?  Forget them all … good or bad! And move forward with the right attitude! The Apostle Paul says, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…” Proceed forward with purpose and a positive attitude.

Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV) - “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Here’s the point: “To understand the mind of a person, look at what he has already achieved. To understand the heart of a person, look at what he aspires yet to do.”