Resolutions 101

It's January 11th and I'm still revising my list of New Year's resolutions. No point in hastily jotting down a bunch of resolutions and then feeling like a failure when I can't keep them. There are guidelines for everything these days, so I've come up with three guidelines for making resolutions. These things may be obvious to you, Dear Reader, but I’ve had to learn them. Here they are:

1.  Be realistic in the number of resolutions you make. Don't resolve to do more than any human can accomplish in sixteen waking hours.

2. Be realistic in the kind of resolutions you make. If you're afraid to get on an airplane, don't resolve to spend your vacation on the other side of the Atlantic. If you're on a tight budget, don't resolve to have a closet full of designer clothes. You get the idea.

3. Don't resolve to do something if you can't bear the thought of failing at it, because you will fail - sometime, somewhere, under some set of circumstances. Everybody has an inner saboteur who loves to say, "See! You can't do this!" the minute you miss doing doing something you resolved to do. Make up your mind to ignore the inner saboteur. When you fall down, for crying out loud, get up! If you know in your heart that you're going to give up instead of get up the first time you fail at a resolution, then it's not a resolution. It's a wish. You can keep it on your wish list, but don't try to make it a resolution.

Now then - I'm back to the proverbial drawing board to do some whittling on my long list of prospective resolutions. Ah! I do believe I see a thing or two that needs to be moved to the wish list . . .