7 Ideas for New Year’s Resolutions for Apologists
New Year’s Goals/Resolutions for 2024
Why make goals? If you don’t, then you’re more likely to drift along and get pulled in all sorts of directions. Goals help us make progress in our lives and move toward greater fulfillment and realization of what God wants for us. In this guide, I provide 7 Big Ideas for New Year’s Resolutions for Apologists.
As a preamble, you should make your goals big and ambitious. Even if you only reach 25% of an ambitious goal, you’ve made considerable progress. You’ll have concrete success to look back on when you build next year’s goals. Note: I write all of this for myself as I’ve always had a hard time making and sticking to goals, but I want to change in 2024.
Idea #1 – Take the time to make your goals because you are worth it.
Set aside a block of time (recommended: 2 – 3 hours) to work out your goals in detail. They will involve various dimensions of your life such as physical fitness, relationships, finances, and spirituality. In this guide, I’m focusing on goals for the apologist, but you can make goals for your entire life. When you spend 2 – 3 hours to make the goals strong and specific, you will be more excited about the project of 2024. I recommend anywhere from 3 – 7 big goals.
As a person made in the image of God, you are a rational substance, endowed by your creator with intellect and will. And, in this order of providence, you are ordered toward union with God in the beatific vision. God’s plan for us is to live a fully integrated life as we grow closer to him and help others grow close to him. If you’re reading this, you have a special interest in apologetics, which means God can use you to help others understand the faith and come into His Church.
For all of these reasons, you owe it to yourself and your fellow man to take sufficient time to map out your goals for 2024.
Idea #2 – Stratify your specific goals with the BAM method.
Each of your goals should be specific. “Lose weight” does not qualify. “Lose 25 pounds by the end of the year” does qualify. Yet, the goal can be broken down further with a BAM method (credit to Ray Edwards for the acronym). This involves creating a Baseline (B), Amazing (A), and Miraculous (M) level for each one of your goals.
The baseline should be very reasonable and attainable with some focused effort. If you reach the baseline goal, you should say to yourself, “Good work. That was a reachable goal and you did it.” The amazing goal should be significantly higher, and something to which you would say “Wow, that’s amazing!” if you reached it. And yet it is still within the upper echelon of feasibility.
The miraculous goal should be so impressive and incredible that you cannot help but attribute its accomplishment to God’s intervention, providence, and amazing opportunity that came your way throughout the year. So, instead of “lose 25 pounds by the end of the year” you can stratify the goal to something like this:
- Baseline: Lose 10 pounds by the end of the year
- Amazing: Lose 30 pounds by the end of the year
- Miraculous: Lose 50 pounds by the end of the year.
Or to use an example involving reading, the goal could be:
- Baseline: Read 5 books this year.
- Amazing: Read 12 books this year.
- Miraculous: Read 30 books this year.
Idea #3 – Develop a physical system for tracking your progress.
Plan to check in on your goals at least once per week. This should be done with a notebook or folder where the goals are kept. Each week, you can reread the goals and determine (a) any progress you have made as well as (b) specific action items you can do in the upcoming week.
Make sure the goals are easily visible in the notebook in the beginning. Carve out a page for each week’s check-in. In addition to BAM-ifying your goals, you can demarcate checkpoints/percentages along the way to celebrate small strides toward each goal.
Idea #4 – Consider a goal related to personal prayer.
We all need to pray every day. This is explained clearly in the Catechism (CCC 2710). The entire fourth part of the Catechism on prayer is worth reading. Then, develop a goal for your prayer life.
Perhaps you can try new devotions from the Church in 2024. Prayer during adoration, lectio divina, the rosary, and divine mercy chaplet are all things you may want to work in with a frequency that you decide for yourself. Personal prayer each day should always be included.
Idea #5 – Consider a goal related to reading.
Do you want to read the entire Bible in 2024? Fr. Mike Schmitz’s podcast Bible in a Year is a great way to make that happen. Do you want to read the Catechism? Again, Fr. Mike Schmit’s podcast Catechism in a Year is a great way to make that happen.
Do you want to read books on another topic? How many? On what topics? Are there scholarly articles you’ve been meaning to get to? Instead of getting pulled around by the latest piece of news on social media, decide ahead of time the number and kind of books/articles you want to read.
Idea #6 – Consider a goal related to writing, speaking, or content creation.
What content do you want to produce based on the topics you have studied? Will you create a Substack? A podcast? A YouTube channel? A blog? Another venue?
Do you want to give talks at a local parish? Do you want to appear on other YouTube channels or podcasts? Do you want to speak at retreats?
Is there a new book you want to write? A long-form magazine article? Decide the kind of content you want to create in 2024 and how much of it. BAM-ify this so it is clear what the baseline, amazing, and miraculous results could be.
Idea #7 – Consider a goal that involves taking a deep dive.
What topics could you stay up all night reading about? What topics/objections led you to have a passion and interest in apologetics? What topics/objections have you had “up on the shelf” that you promised yourself you would look into deeply one day?
At the intersection of those questions, you will find a topic that you can study deeply throughout 2024. Perhaps it is (a) the contingency argument, (b) the reliability of the Gospels, (c) Old Testament difficulties, (d) the Resurrection of Jesus, (e) teleological arguments, (f) theistic evolution, (g) intelligent design, (h) objections to Vatican II, (i) arguments for the Papacy, (j) the Catholic doctrine of justification, (k) authorship of the Pauline epistles, or some other specific example.
After you have selected your topic, read the book Deep Work by Cal Newport which will introduce you to the principles behind deep work vs. shallow work. Also, Cal Newport’s podcast Deep Questions will assist you in implementing and persevering in what he calls “the deep life.”
Then, map out your BAM goal of understanding the topic you have selected. For example:
- Baseline: Become proficient in arguments defending the reliability of the Gospels and prepare 5-minute, 10-minute, and 30-minute talks summarizing the information I have learned.
- Amazing: Prepare a 1-hour lecture summarizing the information you have learned. Develop 2-3 new lines of argument that build upon the material you have synthesized from scholars.
- Miraculous: Complete the baseline and amazing goals and author a new book on the subject to be accepted by an important publisher.
Best wishes for your goals in 2024! Don’t neglect to ask God what He wants you to focus on as well. I wrote this article for myself, but I hope it is useful to you too.
Resources
Living Forward by Michael Hyatt
