I’ve never made a New Year’s resolution and I never will. ‘Cause let’s face it. They don’t last. Look at the way gym memberships spike every January and then dive in February. That would be me with whatever resolution I made.

So what do you do if you’re like me, and the odds are good you are? Institutionalize the resolution impulse. Use tools already developed to help you grow in grace. I suggest two: Observe the Church year and examine your conscience daily.

If you want to make your resolutions, sure, go ahead. Most of my colleagues shared theirs. (Weirdly, none of them asked my advice. What’s with that? Don’t they want to get better?) But work them out through these two forms.

Two Better Ways

First, observe the whole Church year. Every Christian already follows the Church year. We all celebrate Christmas and Easter. Those two days alone anchor our secular year with regular reminders of what Jesus did and does for us. We have a reason for the both seasons.

But there’s more to the ancient Church year than that. The cool thing about the whole year is that it goes up and down. It has more feasts, for one thing. The Annunciation (March 25th), for one. Pentecost, for another. Christ the King at the very end of the Church year, for a third. It gives us more chances to think about what God has done for us and to praise Him for it all.

It also has fasts that helps us look hard at ourselves. The fast seasons ask us to make a special effort, to up our game. We’re asked to fast more, give more to others, and pray and read the Bible more. Here’s a crucial thing: the big fasts precede the big feasts. Advent prepares us to celebrate Christmas. Lent and Holy Week together prepare us to celebrate Easter. The year points to the Good News while making sure we remember the bad news.

And it comes along with all sorts of aids, like Bible readings for each day and prayers to say and wise meditations from the great Christians of history. Even a prayer schedule. See Jay Richards’ words on the Daily Office for an example.

How does this help me? you may ask. With resolutions, you’re pretty much on your own. You have to push yourself every single day. If you fail, as you probably will, you just fail. You get depressed. You eventually give up, unless you’re really tough or stubborn. Or masochistic.

The Church year acts as your coach. It’s there every day cheering you on and giving you your exercises for the day. It pushes you sometimes and let’s you pig out other times. On some days it pushes you to see what God did for you. On others it forces you to see why you needed God to do it. You’re in it with lots of other people. If you fail, as you probably will, there’s always tomorrow. Coach says get up, dust yourself off, and get to it.

Plus with resolutions, you put all your eggs in one basket. You’ve got one thing to do. With the Church year, you may fail to meet your resolutions. But you’ll have grown closer to God and man.

The Searching Questions

That’s the first way to do better what you try to do with your New Year’s resolutions. The second pushes us even harder. Examine yourself daily before you go to sleep. Do it with the aid of a form that makes you answer searching questions. It should take about five minutes, maybe ten.

There are lots of forms to help you do this. The American Catholic bishops offer several forms. Here’s a longer form with other prayers offered by some Anglicans, and another Anglican one based on the Ten Commandments. And here’s a long theological explanation by a classic Presbyterian theologian.

The Catholic bishops offer a simple one based on the Ten Commandments. Here’s an example of how it works. For the seventh Commandment (“You shall not steal”), it asks you, “Have I taken or wasted time or resources that belonged to another?”

“Easy answer,” you and I think. “No, of course not. Do I look like a thief?” We pat ourselves on the back, thinking “Aced that one.” But the questions presses us harder. Have I stolen anything in subtler, easier, even accidental ways? Like wasting someone’s time? Was I selfishly late to meet someone, maybe to finish watching a movie or reading a news article, so they had to wait for me? That’s a way of taking something of theirs that I didn’t have the right to take. So, gosh! I am a thief. I need to repent and I may need to apologize to them, and I need to stop doing it.

Resolutions only make you think about a few things you need to fix. The daily examination of conscience makes you see a lot of things you need to fix that you didn’t see, and that you wouldn’t see without help.

Just Do It

Maybe I spoke too strongly in telling you not to make resolutions. They help some people focus on getting better in specific ways. Great if it does for you. But if you make them, make use of the Church year and the daily examination of conscience. Rely on something outside yourself for guidance and direction. Use some of the tools God has given us to make us holier. You’re not in this alone.