Nope, not gonna do it!

If you’re reading this the week between Christmas and New Year, you may have a lot on your mind. Perhaps you’re putting away the Christmas decorations. Maybe you’re lamenting the fading away of Christmas carols and the warm pleasantries that pervade the season.

You’re probably not planning a New Year celebration of the sort that has been popular in recent years. Maybe you’re rejoicing that 2020 is almost over and thinking, “2021 must be a better year!”

One of the things I’m not doing as New Year’s approaches is making one of those New Year resolutions. No! No! No! Not again!

Over the years, I’ve made the usual resolutions: lose weight; get in shape; be nicer to relatives, co- workers and strangers; be more generous and charitable. And the list goes on.

If I were to work on just a few of the resolutions on that list, I would have plenty of goals for decades to come. There is something special about the close of one year and the beginning of another. We talk ourselves into the fantasy that when Dec. 31 turns into Jan. 1, it’s more than just another day. It’s a new start. A new beginning. Maybe it is.

OK. That’s not a bad thing. It’s good to have a do over, a restart. It’s good to remind ourselves that we can begin again. However, as you know from your own experience, and your observation of others, those New Year resolutions frequently fade as the days of January move into February.

I wish I had the perfect answer. Clearly, I don’t. My track record, like yours, is filled with more unfulfilled resolutions and failures than stunning successes.

There is something in the human spirit that urges us to resolve to do better, to be better. That flame of motivation may flicker and fade, but it may also burst into brightness as we succeed at one or more promises to ourselves.

May your 2021 be filled with hope, inspiration and encouragement to try, yet again, to be more than you’ve been before.