There are no nirvana moments. There will be no nirvana moment. The world is not going to magically change in 2021.
Long, long ago, I might have somewhat believed in New Year’s resolutions. That “BAM,” suddenly something would change significantly for the better. I eliminated that thought many years ago.
Instead, as you age and mature, you come to better understand the nature of life, how situations and actions evolve and have consequences, and how long it takes to change behaviors or patterns to eliminate bad stuff in your life. Or, consequently, refine the good stuff in your life.
I use the word “refine” purposefully. Because you don’t pull a lever and find money pouring out of the faucet into your pockets. You don’t eat one less meal and suddenly lose 12 pounds. Any change of significance takes time, effort and diligence.
We have those qualities inside of us. And, collectively, we have those qualities as a nation. With concentration, we can move our country and personal lives in more positive directions. It will not happen overnight. It will not magically make bad things go away.
Setting goals are good. But, they must be realistic. I think far too many people imagine that putting down a number for the weight they want to lose in 2021 is all there is to it. Yes, saying you want to lose 25 pounds in 2021 is a legitimate goal, but you need to figure out the incremental and sustained steps to get there.
You can get there. We can get there. We can work on mild progressive improvement in our behavior and attitude towards others. “Please.” “Thank you.” Those three short words go a long way. Our mom emphasized them as we grew up, and I use them repeatedly, and it astounds me how they still bring smiles to people’s faces when you address them with those words.
Use them. Don’t be rude. Over the holidays, I watched a man get out of his minivan at the airport and go up to a police car behind him, which was trying to keep the traffic moving. He screamed, using the F bomb at the top of his voice. I thought to myself, “What the heck is wrong with you?” I still wonder what the result of the incident was, as I did not stick around to find out. BTW, the guy was white. Ponder what would have happened if the person vehemently cursing at the police officer was black.
Yesterday I finished refereeing two basketball games and complimented the staff at the scorer’s table, as someone had perfectly folded our warmup jackets and left them in the locker room for us. “Whoever folded those jackets did the best job in the history of jacket-folding for sports officials,” I said humorously. You should have seen the dude beam who had done the folding. You’da thought he won the lottery.
If you’re mature, you know there’s not going to be a nirvana moment to radically change your personal life or society. Sustained, focused effort though will lead to improvements. We can all commit to making that happen.
There are no nirvana moments. There will be no nirvana moment. The world is not going to magically change in 2021.
Long, long ago, I might have somewhat believed in New Year’s resolutions. That “BAM,” suddenly something would change significantly for the better. I eliminated that thought many years ago.
Instead, as you age and mature, you come to better understand the nature of life, how situations and actions evolve and have consequences, and how long it takes to change behaviors or patterns to eliminate bad stuff in your life. Or, consequently, refine the good stuff in your life.
I use the word “refine” purposefully. Because you don’t pull a lever and find money pouring out of the faucet into your pockets. You don’t eat one less meal and suddenly lose 12 pounds. Any change of significance takes time, effort and diligence.
We have those qualities inside of us. And, collectively, we have those qualities as a nation. With concentration, we can move our country and personal lives in more positive directions. It will not happen overnight. It will not magically make bad things go away.
Setting goals are good. But, they must be realistic. I think far too many people imagine that putting down a number for the weight they want to lose in 2021 is all there is to it. Yes, saying you want to lose 25 pounds in 2021 is a legitimate goal, but you need to figure out the incremental and sustained steps to get there.
You can get there. We can get there. We can work on mild progressive improvement in our behavior and attitude towards others. “Please.” “Thank you.” Those three short words go a long way. Our mom emphasized them as we grew up, and I use them repeatedly, and it astounds me how they still bring smiles to people’s faces when you address them with those words.
Use them. Don’t be rude. Over the holidays, I watched a man get out of his minivan at the airport and go up to a police car behind him, which was trying to keep the traffic moving. He screamed, using the F bomb at the top of his voice. I thought to myself, “What the heck is wrong with you?” I still wonder what the result of the incident was, as I did not stick around to find out. BTW, the guy was white. Ponder what would have happened if the person vehemently cursing at the police officer was black.
Yesterday I finished refereeing two basketball games and complimented the staff at the scorer’s table, as someone had perfectly folded our warmup jackets and left them in the locker room for us. “Whoever folded those jackets did the best job in the history of jacket-folding for sports officials,” I said humorously. You should have seen the dude beam who had done the folding. You’da thought he won the lottery.
If you’re mature, you know there’s not going to be a nirvana moment to radically change your personal life or society. Sustained, focused effort though will lead to improvements. We can all commit to making that happen.