I Hereby Resolve…

My Virtual Daughter, Meleah, has a post asking what peoples resolutions for the new year are going to be. I listed my ten resolutions, which I am absolutely positive I can keep. I can keep them because they involve things that I would not likely have to face in the first place. You see, I don’t like to disappoint myself.

Over the years, I have made the usual resolutions: lose weight, quit smoking, save money, get a new job. Success at keeping these resolutions has been mixed at best. And after a period of attempting to be faithful to my resolutions the end result was usually giving up before there was any real change or improvement. I like to compare my record in this area to most politician’s record on keeping campaign promises. I’m able to stick to the straight and narrow for a while, but then it just becomes to convenient to take a different path.

So, instead of making a list of changes I’d like to make in my life that are too pie-in-the-sky to have any hope of being met, I’m going to focus on just trying to do the next right thing. If I do that, how can I go wrong? In fact, if the rest of the world took that approach, wouldn’t the world be a better place?

There is only one problem with my logic. Everyone’s idea of what is right is a little bit different. And that’s where we run into problems. I could list a thousand and one examples of what I’m talking about, but anyone reading this can come up with their own with a couple of seconds of thought. One way to measure your own sense of right or wrong would be to apply the Golden Rule. I can’t think of a single time when treating someone else as I would like to be treated has caused a misstep. Now, all we have to do is start a movement where everyone takes that approach.

Just for fun though, I think I will adopt the following list as my New Year’s resolutions for 2010. Then, on New Year’s Eve 2010, I can look back fully content that I was successful in these:

1. I will not jump out of an airplane without a parachute.
2. I will not pose for Playgirl.
3. I will not run for political office.
4. I will not run any marathons.
5. I will not propose to Sandra Bullock.
6. I will not eat liver pudding.
7. I will not agree with Newt Gingrich on anything.
8. I will not buy a new Cadillac.
9. I will not star in a major Hollywood movie.
10. I will keep writing my blog.

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