Resolutions for the New Year

 

It is that time again. Time to resolve to be better at being ourselves.

I proceed with caution.  Not to be a pessimist, but you can overdo it on the resolutions and optimism.  You get on a new year high and set lofty goals that you then cannot meet and you are bummed out by February.

This is probably not the time to change your life philosophy. Perhaps, it is the time that is a reminder to figure out if you have a life philosophy and to consider some changes to it.

Let us look at some wise words from some wise people on this topic.

Some optimism:

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

Temper that with some reality:

“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” –LM. Montgomery

Though that touch of reality I likely to be true, here’s a sunnier thought:

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C.S. Lewis

A nice mix of both sides: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

And when all else fails…

“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Maybe the secret is just to make small but steady changes.

“The fall of dripping water hollows the stone.” — Lucretius
“Don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones.” — H. J. Brown

And, as much as I love pithy quotations, they have their failings…

“He wrapped himself in quotations – as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.” — Rudyard Kipling

Ouch! That hurts.