New Year’s Resolutions, anyone? Aw, c’mon, take a couple. It’s
the first week of January, and Resolutions are quite piquant right
now.
New Year’s Resolutions, anyone?
Aw, c’mon, take a couple. It’s the first week of January, and Resolutions are quite piquant right now. Plus they’re double-dang guaranteed to produce one raging heartburn of a guilt complex. Because, not surprisingly, few of us keep our New Year’s Resolutions. The bigger news is when we do.
Primarily, it’s a matter of really awful timing. Who in their right mind decides to overhaul their bad habits this soon after Christmas? Most of us feel as though we’ve been run over by a truck after the crush of readying ourselves for the holidays. All that holiday cheer we recently enjoyed didn’t just wash up on the shores of Lake Anderson for heaven’s sake.
Nevertheless, we greet the new year by vowing to lose weight, get organized, enrich our minds, lose more weight, find a better job, smile more often, lose still more weight, spend less money, get into shape, quit procrastinating. And lose weight.
Recently I read that we can improve our well-being at work by doing away with our chairs and balancing on a voluminous “yoga ball” while sitting at our desks. This strengthens our “innards” or some such thing. (I won’t tell you in which publication I read this except here’s a little hint: Shhhhhh… you’re holding it in your hands.)
So how better to start the New Year than by simultaneously getting into shape and writing this column while balanced on a roly-poly yoga ball at my computer? And except for the spinning out of control backwards and crashing into the wall part, it worked out peachy.
Let’s admit it, friends – the cards just aren’t stacked in our favor. Faster than you can say, “Auld Lang Syne,” we’ve crashed on the couch with a pint of Chunky Monkey to ease our pain.
“So why,” you’re undoubtedly asking, “do New Year’s Resolutions have to be so HARD?”
Good question. Where are the Resolutions aspiring to buy cute shoes, up our intake of pizza or watch more football? And how, I might add, did this New Year’s Resolution brainchild evolve in the first place?
Personally, I believe the whole idea of making New Year’s Resolutions was foisted upon us by puritanical ancestors who wanted to be sure we never had any fun. Oh, sure, supposedly the tradition was begun back in the good old days of the Romans or Babylonians or other such era when people didn’t smell too great and the resolutions of the day probably had more to do with bathing every fortnight or two and returning the neighbor’s farm implements.
Therefore, I think it’s high time we got into step with the times and let Jan. 1 embody its true reasons for being: The annual Bowl games and blowout sales at the mall.
So what’dya say we forget about making those annoying Resolutions that commence on Jan. 1? Wouldn’t it be much more practical to plan our New Year’s Resolutions during summer vacation?
Think of it. While we’re off sunning ourselves at the beach or gazing at dolphins frolicking in the balmy waters off Kauai, our brains will be functioning like well-oiled machines. Relaxing poolside in the warm summer sun while gentle breezes play upon our skin will infuse our psyches with clarity and purpose.
Summer – that’s the ticket – when blue sky over our heads and warm sand beneath our toes fill us with strength and perseverance. This summer we’ll make DOZENS of truly meaningful Resolutions that we’ll absolutely, positively stick to and maintain forever.
And here’s the clincher, folks: summer is still better than six months away.
