It feels like autumn in Little Egypt. Nearly 60 degrees. It is 2023! I remember 1963… Time flies when you are having fun. New Year resolutions are easily made and difficult to keep. The secret is that you are the same person you were last night when you were ringing in the New Year and enjoying adult beverages and copious leftover Christmas Sweets! Today I am committed to losing weight and writing a book. I have written enough blogs to fill several books…and I eat less than ever. But…I have never published a book and my weight remains high probably due to carbohydrates. January 1, 2023, affords each of us a good beginning and a mental trick to convince us that now is the time and we are in the place to improve and change and become what we fully know we can evolve and be who we were meant to be!

Resolutions are realized. Each of us really can change. Change involves a bit of willpower and the trading of one habit for another. I have heard that it takes 21 days to change a habit. I decided in 2014 that I was going to become serious about being a writer and henceforth write almost every day. If I do not write I do not feel right… Years ago I decided that I was going to walk daily for my health. I walk every day. Around 20 years ago I decided that I was going to lose weight. I lost 95 pounds.

We carry a lot of baggage on our sore backs. Our assumptions often rule our actions. We think that people are judging us or thinking about us in negative ways when in reality we probably are not entering their minds and if we do their thoughts of us are kind and they are indeed fond of us. Life is as open to possibilities at any age as we are. The Naked Pastor said in his end-of-year newsletter that he had turned 65 in October and that he had several improvement goals for 2023. This resonated with me as I too turned 65 in October…I thought if NP can do it…so can I!

Focus is the key. My friend Jo Ann told me years ago that she had the ability to focus on the tasks in front of her with laser-like detail. To make a positive change we must have it in front of us and not easily ignored or forgotten. There is a bit of pain with change. If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

Don DeLillo’s classic White Noise has been made into a movie that can be seen on Netflix. The movie examines our preoccupation with the plethora of distractions that command much of our cerebral attention. At one point in the film, the central family is eating an elaborate dinner while their neighbors are evacuating a toxic cloud event from an exploded tanker truck. Suddenly the increase of the sirens and the observance of their neighbors running for their lives…spurs them to evacuate also. We have so many competing interests for our precious time that we have difficulty focusing on any of them to completion.

Multi-Tasking is a popular illusion. Our hurry-up world requires Multi-Tasking from time to time…but none of the tasks are done well. The perceived compliment that she/he is so busy all of the time…does not necessarily mean that they are productive. Sisyphus was busily rolling the stone up the hill…only for it to return to the bottom for him to begin the process again.

Satisfying it is when at the conclusion of 2023 we can look back and say…I did it!