It has likely happened to you as it has to millions of others after Christmas.
As you begin catching up on everything that was put on hold before the holidays you can’t help looking ahead to a New Year — a good time to end some bad habits and begin doing whatever needs to be done to make your life better. So you confidently make a list of New Year’s resolutions and sincerely promise yourself that come New Year’s Day, you are going to begin making more of a difference.
That day soon arrives, but because it falls on a Thursday, you decide to wait until the following Monday when you can make a clean start. Unfortunately, when that day arrives it seems as if the whole world has come alive with all kinds of post-Christmas demands. Reasoning that surely by then there will be less confusion, you promise yourself that the following Monday you will definitely begin working on those good acts of self improvement.
You make good on that promise but with a hurried look and sense of guilt, you decide the first three resolutions are too hard. So you begin with the fourth one because it appears to be easier, except it turns out to be harder than you thought. By then, however, March has arrived along with beckoning thoughts of both spring and summer.
You take another look at the list and wonder how you could have ever made it so hard on yourself. Oh well, you say, there’s always next year, except that never seems to happen — the reason so many people no longer make New Year’s resolutions.
If you are one of them, mull over this logical thought: Instead of dramatically hitting this matter of self-improvement head-on, maybe the answer is to begin with only a few activities and build upon them.
Here are three such possibilities:
Instead of Sunday being the last day of your week, make it the first day. Assuming you work Monday through Friday, spend Saturday running errands, doing chores, and picking up loose ends to bring that week to an end. You then devote Sunday to renewing your religious faith, strengthening family ties, plus some resting, reading, and giving the upcoming week some thought. All of that prepares you to more easily slide into five days of working your job or profession. Whether achieved slowly or suddenly, the results will likely cause you to wonder why you didn’t make that change sooner.
Schedule visits with your grand and great grandchildren. Back when family members were much closer, there was far more mixing of the elders with the youngsters. Now, however, and this is most unfortunate, kids and grandparents rarely get together, much less take time to share ideas, thoughts, and opinions. The result is that grandparents have far fewer opportunities to share their wisdom with youngsters who, in return, are prevented from sharing their problems and concerns with grandparents. An easy answer is for each grandparent to spend two uninterrupted one-on-one visiting hours alone with each grandchild. It will likely be such a memorable event that those involved will want to repeat it.
Care less while caring more deeply. Never before have we been asked to care so much for so many people. Many years ago, care was confined to family, neighbors, and friends, and especially times of serious illness. Now, however, we are being asked to care for people wherever in the world they might be, and to continue caring for as long as needed. The trouble is, few of us are able to carry such a load on our shoulders. The best we can do is to care deeply for those closest to us plus those we judge to be especially deserving of our limited ability to care. At the same time, it will give us a greater sense of worth.
Ideally, we would begin the New Year by weaving these or similar possibilities into our lives. Realistically, however, you might want to pick only one or two, then add others later.
Whatever ways you might choose to improve the life experience, here’s wishing you a successful, happy and rewarding New Year.
