New Year's Resolutions

Like most of us, I'm not big on New Year's resolutions.  I mean, I get the reasoning behind it: New Year's falls just a few days after Christmas.  At Christmas time, we all pretend to be a little bit more decent to one another, and we get all optimistic.  Then we got our presents and think about all the stuff we should have asked for instead.  The end of a year has many of us looking back with regrets over missed opportunities and "what might have been", which inevitably leads us to resolutions to correct whatever mistakes we've made in the last twelve months.  "This year", we tell ourselves "things are going to be different".

We promise ourselves we're going to lose weight, start exercising, quit eating junk food, watch less TV, quit smoking, you name it.  And based on the statistics related to America's growing epidemic of obesity, I'd say we're having a hard time following through on those resolutions, no matter how well-intended or medically necessary they may be.

But I have to say, my 2010 hasn't left me with too many feelings of remorse.  Could I have done things better?  Probably.  Could I have tried harder?  Certainly.  But would I trade my 2010 for some of my previous years, or for anyone else's 2010?  Probably not.

I am still married, and happily so.  I moved into a bigger, nicer place.  I got a good job this year that I like doing, with co-workers I don't feel like punching.  I'm still pretty healthy, albeit a little fat.  I have good friends.  My life does not suck as badly as many others, and nowhere near as bad as it used to.  Believe me when I tell you, these are huge gains for me. 

It has been suggested that happiness is not necessarily having what you want in life, but rather wanting what you already have.  With that in mind, I hereby resolve for 2011:

• Not to screw it all up too badly, if I can help it.
• To tell my wife I love her every day, even when I'm grumpy.
• To let my friends know that they're important to me.
• To not do anything too terribly self-destructive.
• To appreciate what I've got, while I've still got it.
• To try to be more aware of the fact that I've got it pretty good.
• To try to take care of what I have.  It was not earned easily.
• To take criticisms with grace and humility, and to criticize other less.
• To distance myself from anything ugly, pointless, or draining.
• To make efforts to fix the things in my life that are broken, or at least not make them any worse.

That's my list.  I'll probably stay fat, so why make promises to the contrary?  I'll still yell at the jerks on the freeway to whom merging is a foreign concept.  I'll still put off things that I really should have done yesterday.  I'm not proud of these things, but then again I'm not going to make a list of promises that I have no intention of keeping, to myself or anyone else.  That's just bad karma.

I hope to end 2011 as I ended 2010: not completely smug and satisfied, but not prostrate with regret and guilt either.  I did the best I could (usually), and the results speak for themselves.  Here's hoping your 2011 doesn't suck either.