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You know how I dread the whole year? Well, this time I’m only going to dread one day at a time. Cartoon Character Charlie Brown

Hmmm, is there a formula for New Year’s Resolutions that we can actually keep?

I have never been a big fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I should view the idea more favourably since the concept is a positive one. The New Year offers a blank slate — an opportunity to get things right. When we set New Year’s resolutions, aspiring to a goal and following through on it, we gain a sense of control over what is happening in our lives.

However, the success rate for keeping New Year’s Resolutions is very low. A quick Google search produced this statistic: Approximately 30 percent of people make New Year’s resolutions, but fewer than 10 percent are successful at keeping them. Twenty-three percent of people quit their resolution by the end of the first week.

To make matters worse, there are some worrisome developments that will unfold in January making it difficult to maintain a positive outlook. Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States once again. He is already rattling cages, making demands and issuing threats indicating that his tenure will be a disruptive one.

Here in Canada, the Liberal federal government is coming apart at the seams. If Justin Trudeau does not step down and/or call an election or prorogue parliament, the opposition parties will topple the government with a non-confidence vote. It is a foregone conclusion that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who presents himself as our saviour but may just be our next big mistake, will become PM.

For our collective peace of mind, we need to put our focus on what we can control individually. Albert Einstein provided a simple model we can follow: Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

We all have a sizable accumulation of yesterdays behind us. I did the math in my case: 24,000 + yesterdays stacked up behind me. There are a few actions taken I wish I could slip back in time and change. But none of us can turn back the clock. What we can do is extract some wisdom from our missteps and apply them to the days that lie ahead.

Most of us understand the logic of living for today but often struggle to consistently put it into practice. The key may be to simply. What are the small things we can do to make today a pleasure and bring a smile to our face? Focus on these things and reward ourselves by indulging in them.

Most of us do not have much influence over what tomorrow will bring in the big picture lens. But all of us have the capacity to hope for better things. Hope may seem abstract but I believe it can be a powerful force if we all nurture and feed it. Hope can define our tomorrows.

And so, the back-to-basics formula for New Year’s Resolutions can be boiled down to: Learn, Live and Hope. A powerful trilogy that each of us can put into action.

~ Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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Tags:   Albert Einstein · Charlie Brown · Donald Trump · Justin Trudeau · metaphor · Michael Robert Dyet · New Year's ResolutionsNo Comments