The Top 10 Ways to Resolve to Have a Great Year

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What sort of year have you decided that 2008 will be for you? A lot of people seem to be going off the idea of New Year's resolutions after many years of making them and then breaking them too soon after. Here are 10 ways to resolve to have a great year:

1. Start in this moment.

Don't wait for a certain day to allow time for mental preparation. How much time do you really need to prepare yourself to enjoy being happy?

2. Start with small improvements.

Decide that today you are going to do something better than yesterday. Then make that your new minimum standard for the following day when you improve just a little bit more, e.g. walking for one more minute each day.

3. Roll with the punches.

Dwelling on upsets is a waste of your precious time. Let them go as soon as you've learnt what you need to and move on.

4. Know what matters.

If you can honestly determine this, you can't lose your sense of direction in life.

5. Focus on what matters.

Give yourself and your priorities the attention and respect that they deserve.

6. Take the pressure down.

Don't expect too much of yourself. Some days were made for stopping to smell the roses; more days than most people take.

7. Minimise doubt.

Optimism's enemy is doubt. The more doubt you can get rid of, the greater your year will be.

8. Detach from outcomes.

The sooner you can do this, the sooner you will have less disappointment, less doubt and more joy.

9. Let some control go.

Life doesn't have to go the way you want it to. It can be a whole lot better!

10. Give yourself permission to make mistakes.

People won't think less of you for being human because they already had their suspicions anyway.

Just a little something to think about.

Positive Vibes

Crankster's sister Ella is being operated on today in Pennsylvania. Although I have been somewhat distracted, and Crankster's always soundly of the positive mental attitude is thinking that all will be well, it can't hurt if we focus a lot of good thoughts on the hospital in Pennsylvania. It happens, I put the Existential Fix in yesterday.

Show 'em how it's done, Ella!

From My Good Friend Echomouse

Echomouse is one of the smarter people around. She doesn't try to fool herself, so she doesn't try to fool anyone else either. It's uncommon to find that trait in a friend these days, so I tend to think I'm kind of lucky. We became friends last year, then we both had perfectly horrible 2007s. I have started to pull out of the misery of the year, in fact, I have found myself to be the normal amount of upset at coming home to find a $40 speeding ticket issued by a camera for doing 34 mph in a 25 mph zone. This occurred as the zone changed to a 35 mph zone, I evidently sped up too fast. Not the end of the World. Same thing happened to Judy. Local governments are getting creative in raising money. But I digress, I suspect that the two of us are starting to move on with our lives as we approach the first anniversary of some bad events.

So when I opened my mail, and I got a piece of e mail from E.M., and it was George Carlin discussing age, I read the whole thing. I am going to share it with you because of the insight that Carlin brings to subjects. Carrie's writing is mixed in. It's all worthwhile.

George Carlin on aging!
(Absolutely Brilliant)

IF YOU DON'T READ THIS TO THE VERY END, YOU HAVE LOST A DAY IN YOUR LIFE. AND WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED, DO AS I AM DOING AND SEND IT ON.

George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

'How old are you?' 'I'm four and a half!' You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

'How old are you?' 'I'm gonna be 16!' You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life ! You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony. YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; 'I Was JUST 92.'

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. 'I'm 100 and a half!'
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them.'

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them , at every opportunity.

Carrie, I love you! And the rest of you too!

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Guilty As Charged

OK, instead of sitting down and writing a post about something pithy, or otherwise, I read your blogs. I'd really read your blogs because so many of you are so good at it. Still, I have pictures, and the garage is finished, and we are parking there, out of the snow! Naturally, there's a story which I haven't gone into.

Getting up early (6:30 am), working late (oh dark thirty to oh dark thirty, the sun is a rumor although I actually do sit next to a window) only detracts from a job that is becoming enjoyable. With one half inch of snow yesterday morning, it took one hour and forty-five minutes to travel eighteen miles to work. There's a reason the British Diplomatic Corps list Washington, D.C. as a tropical zone and it deals with the summer months. This area doesn't do well when it rains. Imagine what happens when it snows.

It's time to go. We have a lady coming in tomorrow to discuss moving over her four plus million in accounts, and I ought to be awake in the event she talks to me. Like saying "Hello" or something like that. I think I'll get up half an hour earlier, just to make sure I can get in on time. You'd think that I had suddenly become a grown up. Ugly, isn't it. Have a great day, and a great weekend. More soon!

The Holiday Season

Above is a close up of the Silver Lace Red Maple in front of the house. For about a week at the end of Fall, the tree's leaves turn a bright red, then die and fall off. In the old days, the end of Fall was generally somewhere around the third week of October around here. This picture was taken November 21, 2007, or about a month later than you'd expect. Full Fall colors were still here in all of their vibrance the last week of November.

For those of you like Pool who have friends that would like you to believe that Global Warming is a figment of your, and everyone else's imagination, ask them to explain how Fall got moved back a full month. Be careful because sometimes a lot of smoke and mirror action can ensue from both sides of the issue. I like going with the obvious, like, is the Planet Earth getting warmer? Yes, we are still coming out of the last Ice Age, so the Globe is getting warmer. Is the Globe getting warmer faster than it should? What about the hole in the Van Allen Radiation Belt? I have no idea. I leave that to the scientist who have the proper training, please fund their research. This is where you should realize that i don't need to go any farther. So, I'm not.

That brings me to the Holiday Season. There is Depression everywhere. The DC area is mourning the murder of Sean Taylor, who played football for the Washington Redskins. The Redskins played Buffalo earlier today, their first game since Taylor's murder, and the team was having a lot of trouble playing. They led until the last 4 seconds of the game, and then lost it. Their coach, a Hall of Fame Coach, committed a foul that I had never heard of, but he was severely distracted, as was the team.

Other heinous events have also occurred but got less press coverage. A man arranged to meet his wife near here to exchange their children for Thanksgiving in a neutral park. The man killed his wife and two children with a knife, then killed himself. Last Monday, a man attempted to cross the street a mile from my house. It is a six lane 40 mile per hour road. He was involved in a hit and run accident, and died of his injuries. The police found the car, in Virginia where it was registered. They determined that the car did not inflict all of the damage to the man, but that at least one more car was involved. These two stories made the local paper, but not the daily national press that Sean Taylor's murder has.

It's true, bad things have always happened. The world is a nasty place. I think that is one of the reasons I took so much pleasure from Holmes, and the silver lace red maple, my wife, and the people who comment on my blog. That means all of you. I just want you to know how much I appreciate it. I'll try to get out more, and comment and blog more.

Monty