Thursday, December 31, 2009

2010 TIME TO BEGIN AGAIN

Every New Year’s Eve folks deliberate on resolutions about how they want to live their lives differently. Lose weight, stop smoking, start exercising, go to church, work less, get a job, play more, give up drugs. Statistics report that most of these are broken or forgotten within the first thirty days of the New Year.
So why do we make resolutions? The definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different outcome. Isn’t that what we are doing? We start the New Year behaving insanely and expect the next eleven months to get better. How about a different approach?
If we truly focus on the fact that the whole world is open to us and the only obstacles that keep getting in our way are those we construct ourselves, we could view life with a new perspective. Here are some ideas.

How about waking up each day and being grateful – that you are above ground!

Maybe we could enjoy the food we eat instead of inhaling what is on the plate, to get to dessert.

Instead of complaining about the snow – try playing in it.

Don’t wait to get to church to pray – talk to God in your car while the motor is heating up.

Since anger only grows- replace it with kindness and humor.

Rather than letting one thing ruin the entire day – let it go, and enjoy the next moment that has to be better.

Since yelling at the kids to behave doesn’t work- how about redirecting them to something fun for all of the family to do.

Live as if this is your last day and enjoy every minute of it. There are no tomorrows for parts of the world. There are no second chances for the majority. So if you are given one, hold it tight and use it in a positive way.
If you are not in prison – every day is a holiday. If someone, somewhere cares about you, you have love. If someone gives you a paycheck, you have security. If you can read this article, you have sight and education. And if you can talk about this with anyone at all, you have connectedness with society.

Let’s stop and count the blessings we have this year instead of wasting time trying to redesign our lives with silly resolutions. The whole world is open to us, so we need to begin living in it, in a positive, responsible, grateful way!

Be well, Dr. M