“We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.”
Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

We are walking, breathing, shitting, hand-wringing self contained piles of worry. We are consciously engaged in our own egotistic fantasy world of “what-if’s.” With the dawn of a new year, we create resolutions. I resolve to lose more weight, be better to my kids, drink more milk, take more vitamins, quit smoking, blog more, think more, wait more, etc and so on. This is our mantra every time a new ball drops in Times Square. “I resolve to…” is such a silly statement. We all know we aren’t going to do anything with those resolutions. For some of us, the hold out time will be about 2 weeks, then for some it will last a little bit longer. Then, we fall back into our old patterns and say “fuck it.” Pats on the back resume and we wait it out for another year to begin to start all over again.

Stop. Yes, stop. Resolutions are no more than the smoke and mirrors we place in front of ourselves to appear as if we have some sort of fortitude in the new year. We don’t want to be the same hand-wringing worry-warts like everyone else. We want to appear over-analytical of our own transgressions so that we can join the fray of “I did it!” We will never get there though. And that is when we once again become a part of the same herd bottle-necking into forgotten promises. We trudge along much as we did the year before.

Stop. Stop now and just live. Kick the resolutions behind you. Buck it up and have some goals. Goals are concrete, goals are fluid and they are reality. Goals say I will do this and I will do it come hell or high water. Goals produce success. Goals produce concepts for further goals. Goals make you happy. Goals get those endorphins popping and cause you to march to the beat of your own drum. Then, and only then, can you throw away all that doubt and fear. Goals aren’t always grandiose. They don’t have to be. And goals do not cycle in tune to Auld Lang Syne, either.