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AIKEN-AUGUSTA’S MOST SALUBRIOUS NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED IN 2006
STORIES
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by Dan Pearson Medical Examiner publisher
ince this month starts my 27th year of publishing a twicemonthly newspaper in Augusta, I thought I would share a couple of the more unusual episodes encountered over the course of the years. As everyone knows, Chicago is the murder capitol of the U.S. What might surprise you is how the Medical Examiner was involved in one of them. Chicago recorded a staggering 762 murders last year, more than New York and Los Angeles combined. The fiancée of one of those murder victims did a Google search for “medical examiner” and somehow ended up on my doorstep (figuratively speaking). It was the morning of June 14, and her Please see 2 STORIES page 2
JANUARY 20, 2017
This tank was supposed to last all year H ow frustrating is it to resolve to do something good for yourself — to lose weight, let’s say, or exercise more — only to have your plans smoldering in ruins within weeks of beginning the journey? We can all answer that one: very. Unfortunately, studies show that’s exactly what happens to most New Year’s resolutions: within just a few weeks into the shiny new year — sometimes within mere days — inaction (or even cheating) has often set in with a vengeance. The average person is so disappointed and disgusted with himself that he just says, “You know what? Forget the whole thing.” As Cubs fans used to say, “Wait ‘til next year.” Let’s not go there, shall we? Who made the rule that good things have to start on January 1, anyway? As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” One of the realities of trying to establish a new habit is setbacks: you will lose five
pounds and then gain two back; you will start walking three or four days a week, and then suddenly realize you’ve let an entire week go by and haven’t walked once; you will go ten days without smoking and then succumb and bum a cigarette off someone, or even buy a whole pack. While things like that are disappointing, they aren’t the end of the world. We all fell down many times learning to walk, but we got up and kept trying. Gradually, we got better and better at it – but even adults still fall down once in a while. When it happens we just get up, dust ourselves off and keep walking. And that’s the best thing to do when we falter in self-improvement goals: just get up and try again. Speaking of little children, parents know that correction and discipline are never one-and-done propositions. We have to make continuous course corrections for our children. The third or fourth time we have to correct our 3-year-olds we don’t give up on them and unleash them upon an unsuspecting world without restrictions.
Why should we be any different with ourselves? In other words, don’t give up on yourself when you stumble on the way to your goal, whatever it might be. Don’t stop loving yourself enough to care. Kiss the booboo, cry a little if you must, but keep going. Just recently you thought the goal was worth starting. Just because you’ve tripped up doesn’t mean the goal is no longer worth pursuing. (Aside: but it might need some adjusting. Maybe instead of walking an hour every day at 5:00 a.m. you should scale it back to half an hour every other day - just until you get your footing again.) As you march forward, be aware that experts don’t put a lot of stock in “willpower.” What is willpower, anyway? It’s a bit vague. Setting a realistic goal that is measurable takes willpower out of the picture and replaces it with results. Go for it! +