As we look back on 2016 and forward to 2017, let me highly recommend this post by Tricia McCary Rhodes and the exercise she has linked.

Here is the link to the exercise. Here is her opening paragraph:

While the neural pathways in your brain are probably telling you its time to form those New Year’s resolutions, the truth is most of us don’t manage to keep them beyond a couple of weeks, at best.  Far be it from me to discourage you, but there might be a better way to experience enduring change.  A number of years ago I decided to forego resolutions, and seek to discover what one thing God might have for me in the coming year.  I can’t tell you how transformative these have been.