IN 2013, I WILL…

t is that time of year again, and I stink at doing this. Yes, you know what I am talking about. It is the season when we make well-intended commitments that we just can’t maintain. The holidays are almost behind us — if we can just get over the huge hurdle we call the annual New Year’s resolution — then things

So what is it going to be this year? There are so many good options: lose the bulge and workout more; learn something new; eat health; get out of debt and save; spend more family time; go more places; be less stressed; volunteer; drink less; go to church every week. Those are all so commonplace. Actually, they are things I really ought to be doing anyway. Perhaps I should be more creative with my plans for my resolutions? Maybe there is something more

Hmmm, I could resolve to not do New Year’s resolutions this year, Maybe I could do a Google or Bing search for masculine New Year’s resolutions? I would just as soon wrestle a Florida black bear or juggle alligators, and now that I consider that idea a little more, I think I really didn’t think that through. The Internet may not be a good place for resolution ideas. I could ask my wife or one of the folks at work. I could just as soon ask my mother-in-law — I bet she has some ideas for me. Maybe not.

NOW I HAVE A QUANDARY.

I have it! I resolve in 2013 to read the instruction manuals for the stuff I got for Christmas. No, that won’t work, I think I threw them out with the boxes. How about: I resolve to be more environmentally active in the New Year by doing less laundry and wearing more deodorant. No, no . . . that won’t sell with the family or the office!

When it gets down to it, these New Year’s resolutions are really all about making change. It means that I need to decide about what improvement in my life or circumstances I am willing to change. Genuine self-examination can be overwhelming, but it is actually a good thing for all of us to do. Sometimes we need to make major life changes; sometimes they are less significant things that need tweaking in our lives. Change is hard. Change that is bona fide is not without cost, either. The truth is sometimes when we make those resolutions for change, we are trying to swim against the riptide of our lives for the past twenty, thirty, forty, or more years.

See. I really wasn’t kidding about this resolution thing. Asking me to make New Year’s resolutions is like sending me to RedBox to rent a good movie for “date night.” I am a miserable failure at picking out good movies, but I still do it — and I am going to try to make a resolution.

I found out from the resolution-making experts (Psychology Today), that more than fifty percent of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions quit keeping them within six months, and that the next year only ten percent of people keep their New Year’s commitment. I also learned from all my research on making New Year’s resolutions that it takes at least twenty-one days to create a new habit. So what that means is that every day for three solid weeks I am going to have to intentionally and honestly try to do whatever it is that I resolve to do in 2013. If I start on January 1st, then around January 22nd whatever I resolve for this year will start to feel right and commonplace. That is not quite as daunting as thinking about having to follow through for 365 days. I can stand anything for three weeks… well, almost anything.

If I look at it like this and just think about “doing whatever I resolve to do today and plan to do it again tomorrow,” then I can make it happen in my life. I think the goal of a short-term and dayto-day accomplishment is attainable, even by an attention-deficitdisorder resolution-maker like me. I could even take it a step further and share my new purpose with a friend or my spouse. They can remind me when I lose sight of the goal and help me get back on the wagon toward change. Whew, that is a burden off my mind!

Wait a minute, I still have to figure out what I am going to resolve to do this year…