Talkin' 'Bout My Resolutions

I just stepped into the year of 2016 along with everyone else who is alive on this planet.  Back when I had the world by the tail in 1971, 2016 wasn’t even on my radar.  It’s been a while since I had the world by the tail.  I probably never really had it by the tail, I just thought I did.  Since then, there have been times when it truly had me by the tail.  That brings me to New Year’s resolutions.  We take this somewhat arbitrary turn of a page to look back and look forward and way too many of us make some unbelievably optimistic plans and commitments for the New Year.  We are going to stop all of the bad stuff and start all of the good stuff in earnest, and not in a passive way at all.  We are going to grab this New Year by the short hairs (a not so polite Southern Term I believe) and not let go until we are skinny, fit, have our finances and relationships in order and are riding high above all the clouds and negative stuff in life.

I’ve never really been a New Year’s resolution sort of person.  I know myself.  I know that I am not disciplined in that way.  I am a dilettante, a dabbler, a hobbyist if you will.  If I were to say that I was going to research various and odd subjects and try 2 or three new hobbies in the New Year and totally enjoy the heck out of them, I could nail it.  That’s what I do.  But to say I am going to get totally fit and loose a thousand pounds (that’s not so much of a stretch) etc., I can’t commit because I know it won’t happen, or if it does happen, and it has at times, it won’t stick.  I’m not that disciplined of a person.  Life things get in the way.  And that’s the truth for most of us.  For too many of us, I think the New Year’s resolution is based on the idea that we have not been too successful at life; maybe even failures in many ways, but!..Beyond this turn of the page, we are not going to be failures!  We are going to be Successful at Life! (Insert very dramatic low voiced reverb/echo here).

I’m tired of looking at life that way.  I’m tired of looking at the New Year that way.  Yes, it is good to have a set point in time to look back and look ahead, but I refuse to say, “I am or have been a failure, but from now on, boy, I’m going to nail it!”  I haven’t been a failure.  I may not have succeeded in the areas that the world and its marketing scheme seems to think are important.  I may not have been as successful in every area of life that is personally important to me.  But, I refuse to accept that I am a failure and that I need a complete and total turn around to get my life in order.

So, looking into this New Year, what can I say about life?  I can commit to living my life, not according to the world and its marketing schemes, but according to me, the choices I choose, measured by the metrics I can accept for myself.  Do I plan to improve?  Yes, I do, but my improvement will hopefully be in the areas of being a better person in my own life…a better husband to my wife…a better father to my adult children and their spouses…a better family member to my extended family…a better friend to those I consider friends and those who call me friend…a better citizen to the world around me—especially to those in need…a better member of God’s natural creation…a better member of God’s Kingdom…and especially, a better me as I understand me to be.

I know, going to the gym every day or losing 50 pounds may be easier than this sounds, but I believe that even a small improvement in any or all of these areas will improve not only me, but everyone and everything around me.

I also want to get a radio controlled drone in 2016.