My will. His power.

Not making any new year resolutions this go round. Nope. It's the same list nearly every year anyway. Instead I plan to explore why my weaknesses remain weaknesses. That's a new angle. Maybe self-awareness can help me overcome my procrastinator-avoidant-obsessive-neurotic soul with their attendant self-destructive behaviors.

Already this year (snort!) I've figured out my problem isn't the lengthy list of habits, traits and behaviors I want to change. No, it's really just two things: Vision and Discipline. I don't have much of either. Which is why I am adopting the following mantras:

Discipline is remembering what you want.

and

It's either the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.

Oh, and willpower. Could use a bit more of that, too. Here's an interesting read from the WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703478704574612052322122442.html

Willpower, like a bicep, can only exert itself so long before it gives out; it's an extremely limited mental resource.
Given its limitations, New Year's resolutions are exactly the wrong way to change our behavior.

Willpower, the grit your teeth kind, is not enough and the lack thereof not necessarily a character flaw. So, how does all this, discipline, willpower, and weakness connect exactly? And what happens when you find yourself facing a new year with the same old habits, behaviors and attitudes? The fact that they are the 'same old' should tell us they are bigger and stronger than we are. What do you and I do now?

I am thinking that willpower is really a surrender. I offer up my will to the Savior and he supplies the power. The Atonement, not the one I thought I knew, but the one which empowers, is what I need to learn.