Resolutions

It’s usually this time of year that people always make resolutions for the coming year. OK, I waited until the very last possible day. I’ve been busy. Sue me.

People always end up choosing things with good intentions, but it’s usually things they’re not likely to follow through on. More of a wish list -- except people don’t realize that with resolutions, YOU are the fairy god mother who needs to make the wishes come true.

For January and February, people will eat less (all the holiday goodies having been safely ingested before the resolution kicked in), work out more (it’s cold, what else is there to do?), watch less TV (until sweeps kicks in in February) and try to be nicer to their fellow human beings (it’s all that holiday goodwill carrying over). Come March, all bets are off.

What resolutions? Did I say that? Well I didn’t know they’d open a Cinnabon right next to my office. The gym was too full and I was too fat so I didn’t want all those people to see me in my workout clothes. The dog ate my homework. The sun was in my eyes.

Of course there are those with a very high opinion of themselves who don’t think they need resolutions. Resolutions? Not for me. I’m perfect just the way I am.

Oprah’s got a new thing this year where she tells her viewers to ask themselves "What have you done today to make you feel proud." MLB is an avid Oprah watcher so I’m usually up on what’s happening on the show. I think it’s a worthy effort to make people think more about others and less about themselves. Not a bad goal. We’ll always look out for ourselves but it’s less natural to be watching out for others.

Of course, after this intense period of natural catastrophes, I think many of us have done more (at least more than ever before) in 2005 to help others. How many people who never donated time, money, belongings, etc. to anything before, volunteered or donated to Tsunami Relief, Katrina Relief, the American Red Cross, etc. Sad that it takes such public and devastating suffering of others to wake the rest of us up. But at least it did. It would be sadder if we all just read about Katrina in the paper and then turned to the sports section without blinking an eye. I think overall, we reacted responsibly and admirably.

But back to resolutions. Resolutions are SUPPOSED to be about ourselves. It’s a time to conduct a personal inventory and determine what we need more or less of in our lives. What could we be doing better? It’s a time to be selfish. It’s all about you. If one of the things you think you could be doing more of is helping others, then that’s fine. But you choose that as a resolution because it’s something you think YOU should be doing.

Of course, I could say I’m making a resolution to be less selfish so in that case, I shouldn’t make any resolutions. We have a way of talking ourselves out of anything.

So without further ado, here are my own resolutions:

-- Spend more time with MLB and the kids.

-- Try to play when the kids ask me to play with them. Such requests are often met with a "later" or "tomorrow" response. Before long, they’ll stop asking and I’ll be the one begging them to play.

-- Make sure the people (family and friends) that I love and appreciate, know it. I’m going to try to call, email and get together more.

-- Keep up with my workout routine. For the first time in a decade, I feel fit and have lots of energy. It’s not easy to keep up but I really want to.

-- Write at least one, and hopefully two, more scripts

That’s all I can think of right now. It’s a good start.

Happy New Year to everyone who has stopped by to read this. I hope 2006 brings you everything you want.