In the coming year, if you want to achieve your New Year’s goals, it is going to take a new level of dedication. If you’ve tried to do something for the last two or three years and failed, maybe you need a new strategy. I’ve heard a good definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.

This year, to stick to your new goal, you have to buckle down and exercise some self-discipline. The difficulty is training yourself to love discipline. We love what it produces, but the exercise thereof is very difficult. Why is discipline so difficult?

We live in a culture that glorifies that which makes us feel good. The issue is that what makes us feel good (pleasure) usually leads to a poor, regretful and less fulfilled life.

Don Miller, in his “Storyline: Creating Your Life Plan,” discusses the works of Dr. Viktor Frankl, a Viennese psychologist who was in Nazi concentration camps and helped those suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. Frankl rejected Freud’s idea that man’s chief desire is pleasure and that his behavior can be predicted based on how he gets pleasure. Frankl, however, in his research said that a person’s chief aim in life is to have a deep sense of meaning and purpose. However, when a person does not have that purpose, he or she will numb that desire with pleasure.

Thus, I believe we live in a culture that is numbing the desire for meaning and purpose with pleasure, because it is easier than the pain of discipline. The bible speaks of this condition in human kind. It is the war between the flesh and the Spirit.

“For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:8-10 ESV)

“But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV)

“…for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8 ESV)

“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11 ESV)

Which will you choose in the coming year: the harvest of discipline, or the harvest of pleasure?