MERRY NEW DAY!
INTRODUCTION.
And when you wake up ready to say, “I think I’ll make [it] a snappy new day.”
Fred Rogers
Some of my dear readers may remember an earlier version of this post I published 364 days ago. Why re-post it? Because it’s a reminder that New Year’s resolutions are a two-edged sword and should be made, if at all, carefully and realistically. I’ve been working on humility, and reading it again reminds me that I have a strong streak of hypocrisy. Last December 31, although I cautioned against making New Year’s resolutions at all, I still made some, and then failed to keep most of them. I have come to realize, at least in my case, that our long-term promises to ourselves as the hours before midnight on the last day of the year tick down are (at least according to Einstein’s definition) insane.
THE DISMAL STATS.
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men…lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain. ROBERT BURNS (1785)
If you’re not sick of the silly games that dominated the Holiday Season, here are a few relevant trivia questions, the answers to which are laid out in this fascinating article
§ How many folks who made NY resolutions gave up on them by mid-January? (25%)
§ How many are still on track by January 31? (Only a third.)
§ What percentage of Resolvers make resolutions despite expecting they will abandon them by the end of February? (43%)
§ How many kept their resolutions through the end of the year? (9%)
I DOUBT EINSTEIN MADE RESOLUTIONS.
These statistics are so bleak that it is sane to conclude that making resolutions is not. Professor Einstein would probably agree: On a break from thinking about falling elevators, he came up with a definition of insanity that is at least as famous (and easier for us humanities majors to understand) as his theories of relativity:
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
A MODEST PROPOSAL.
The Professor’s elegant definition of failure suggests an equally graceful solution to the New Year’s Resolution conundrum:
Let’s not make any New Year’s resolutions. Not one. lnstead, subtract 8,736 hours from the coming year’s total of 8,760. That leaves us with 24 hours (aka, “today”). Then, at the end of each today, we’ll review these simple, present-minded questions, that you taped to the fridge right after you read this post:
TODAY, DID I…
Center myself in the morning by saying something like:
Good morning, day. I’m grateful for this day. May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Meditate for 5-15 minutes?
I sit quietly with my eyes closed, focusing on the present and my breathing, letting the random (sometimes troubling) thoughts flow past, and refocusing on my breath, all in an easy, repeating cycle.
Work in the service of someone else?
Get 25-30 minutes of moderate exercise like taking a walk?
Reach out to someone I care about, but haven’t talked to in a bit?
Get started on a project on which I’ve been procrastinating?
Take a 5-10-minute break every hour?
Follow my Smartphone 10/50 rule? (Talk about hypocrisy!)
Turn the bloody device off and put it in a drawer in another room for 50 minutes every hour, pull it out for 10 minutes to check texts and other “important” stuff.
Resist a craving?
Say something true, humble, and nice to myself about myself?
When I got to the end of today, and found I hadn’t answered yes to all of these questions, did I give myself a break by saying this New Zealand prayer of closure?
It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done. What has not been done has not been done. Let it be. The night is for stillness and rest.
CONCLUSION.
Resolutions spring from optimism about the future. We often look for happiness there, predicting hopefully, “I will be happy when ____.” But no matter what cool event or hoped-for accomplishment we put in the blank, we are no more than gamblers in an uncertain game. What is certain is that “when” is no more and no less than right now. It’s what we get, and it’s a profound blessing.
So, let’s look at our daily “did I…” list, take a shot at doing some of the things on it each day, and stay focused on Ferris Bueller’s timeless advice:
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
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