There’s no time like the New Year to make promises and pledges regarding self improvement. But resolutions are a dime a dozen and are often broken as quickly as they’re made. There’s nothing wrong with attempting to improve oneself, but the chance of New Year’s resolutions surviving the test of time is no better than your chance of winning the lottery.
That said, I don’t believe New Year’s resolutions are a waste of time. Any thought given to self improvement has got to be beneficial, if not long lasting. Let’s face it, there are a lot of aspects of our lives that we rarely give any thought to in the spirit of improvement. Worse than that, there are even more that we never even think about. Sometimes, we cruise through life like we’re in the back of a cab. We leave it to others to get us where we are going and sometimes we have no idea how we ended up where we are.
What would your life look like if it was perfect? In a perfect world, what would you do on a day-to-day basis? What would you accomplish over the next 12 months if you lived in a perfect world? There’s very little an individual can do about the world around them, but they have complete power over how they engage that world. What if your resolution was to visualize and then start to build your perfect life?
A perfect life is more than just how skinny you are or how you look. A perfect life is more than financial security or a job. Good relationships with others are important, but that aspect alone does not constitute a perfect life. Your life is made up of countless pieces that either work together or work against each other.
Life is nothing but a journey. Your journey is either made with a destination in mind, or it’s aimless. When your life is aimless, the pieces of your life often work against each other. It’s hard to arrange the pieces of your life if you don’t know where you’re going. Take the time to visualize your perfect life before you think about what you’re going to change over the next year. Take the time to write down the things that have to change to make your life perfect and then list the things you can do to help transform your life into your vision.
Just like resolutions, your movements toward a perfect life will fail miserably. The trick is to keep your eye on what you think your perfect life looks like and keep heading toward it. Sometimes, what we think is perfect will change as we move through life and re-evaluate our situation. We all take wrong turns, we just have to keep our goals in mind and adjust them when we get off track.
Whatever you do, charge into the New Year with one goal: Making 2014 the best it can be. Why would you want to do anything else? Happy New Years from the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense attorney and co-founder of the James Law Firm with offices in Little Rock, Conway and Fayetteville, Ark. He may be reached at Bill@JamesFirm.com.