Resolutions

I have never been one to make resolutions for the new year.

Even when I worked in the corporate world, I hated setting goals for the year.  So often they were financial or productivity-based and out of my general control.  Yes, I could have a small amount of influence on the outcome, but it never seemed like enough to make it fair to be personally judged for meeting, or not meeting, these goals.

I realize resolutions are personal, yet I rarely jump on the New Year’s Resolution bandwagon. 

In my entire life I can remember two resolutions that were made and taken to heart.

The first was my senior year of high school.  I wasn’t sleeping well and I felt I was overweight.  I concluded the liter of Coke or Dr. Pepper I was consuming each day had something to do with both.  Dr. Pepper’s logo said to drink it at 10, 2, and 4pm which I was pretty faithful about doing.  I had been raised on glass bottles of “sodies” being stored in cool bedroom closets and on the cement floor of the garage during a time when air conditioning rarely existed and refrigerator space was at a premium. I was addicted to soft drinks.

So I quit. 

It was cold turkey and it was not easy.  For weeks and then months, I could taste Coke or Dr. Pepper in my mouth but I refrained from drinking any soft drinks. But I didn’t do this as a one-year goal; it was for as long as I could do it.  In college I slipped up one time at a dorm party when the only beverage was rum and Coke.  But honestly, that was it.  I soon extended the ban to ALL carbonated beverages but at some point after college I discovered gin and tonic and decided there needed to be exceptions.  I will confess as a young father I had to teach my children the deliciousness of a Big Red ice cream float (it’s a Texas thing).  Forty plus years after that resolution I still don’t drink sodas.  In my lifetime Coca-Cola changed their formula to New Coke and then changed it back and I never tried to weigh in on the debate.  Some people rave about Diet Coke but I couldn’t tell you a thing about it.

The second resolution I made, and kept, was to read through the Bible in a year.  While this could have been started any time during the year, I was given a Bible that actually organized the scriptures chronologically from the creation to the revelation and selected the readings for each calendar day.  It was just easier to start it on the first of the year.  I would be misleading you to say I read it EVERY day, but I think the most I ever had to catch up was a week’s worth.  It was a great experience and really added to my spiritual growth.  I even did it a second time several years later.

So will there be a life changing resolution for 2022?  That’s a lot of pressure, especially given how the past two years have gone.

Maybe there’s less pressure if, rather than calling them resolutions, I call them ‘like-tos’.

I’d LIKE TO do this in 2022:

• Spend more time with my family
• Keep traveling in Wanda the van
• Publish a book
• Fix the retaining wall by the driveway that has been cracked for four-five years

No pressure.