I had some downtime this weekend and caught up on some back issues of Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy’s NO BS Marketing Newsletter.  I’ve been a member for a while and my usual strategy is to shut down my computer and turn off my phone for about an hour the day that the newsletter hits my mailbox but sometimes life gets in the way.  I was about two issues behind so as I waited on a batch of bread to bake, I sat down and read through the November and December issues.

The November issue brought to mind a powerful scene from a movie I watched a few years ago called Facing The Giants.  The scene tells the story of two farmers who needed rain for their fields. Both prayed for rain but only one of them went out to prepare his fields to receive the rain.  The scene goes on to ask: Which one do you think trusted God to send the Rain?

Facing The Giants: Prepare Your Fields For Rain

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_DKPCFrJ4

I find this story to be a great parable for the New Year and, particularly, New Years Resolutions.  After all, here we stand, halfway through the first month of a brand new year —full of hope for what will unfold in the next 11 1/2 months.  Many of us ritualistically made plans and set goals for 2012… some realistic and some just a little beyond our reach.  But the trouble with some New Years Resolutions is that they’re just wishes on pieces of paper.  There’s no action plan to make those wishes come true.  It’s a Secret spoken into the wind and some people just sit back and wait for the miracle to come, rather than doing anything to prepare for its fulfillment.

Which farmer are you? Are you still waiting on the world to change? Or are you preparing for the change that your work towards your goals will bring?