So, it’s 2015.

The ol’ two – oh – one – five.

And as Anthony Hopkin’s doomed character sighed in the exceptional Meet Joe Black, “Don’t they go by in a blink.”

Now, with this new nother year comes naturally another resolution. Or two. Or three. The expunging of yesteryear’s fruitless efforts and a renewed commitment to start or stop or lose or gain or perhaps . . . reinvent. The revolving door of annual New Year’s resolutions.

Yes, what I like to call the universally unavoidable and soul-crushingly inevitable New Year’s Revolution.

Oh, yeah. I totally get it. I’ve been there myself a dozen times or two.

And to tell you the truth, I’m not much for them. The whole resolution thing. At least not to the degree that I’ll be devastated when I give in to the late evening offering of molten lava cake or the nixing of a 6am two-mile loop when it’s dumping down rain outside. Or the fireside Macanudo with Stan and Eric. I mean, life happens, after all, right? The stopping and smelling of the roses ‘cuz life’s too short and all. That real-life enviable going with the flow, seizing of the day, don’t worry be happy full body embrace of whatever comes your way.

Yes, we have the best intentions. Yes, we realize the potential reward for our efforts. Double yes, we desire to reach that third belt notch and top the stairs without panting. No one knows it better than we do.

Than I do.

But I’ve also lived a full 58 years now and recognize the obstacles. When something more pressing comes into play. Something more urgent. More attractive. More cozy. More life critical. More RIGHT NOW.

In computer gaming there’s a phenomenon termed the Fog of War. Where your top-down aerial view of the game venue is obscured on the fringes. You can only see what’s in your immediate presence. The Panzer tank pounding your foxhole or the tribe of orcs swarming your glade. You’re blindly clueless to the battalion of enemies or majestic band of rescuers just over the next ridge.

You’re living only in the now.

I experienced a health scare last month. A melanoma lesion just over the mirror-visible crown of my right shoulder. I detected a shift in my dermatologist’s voice tone as he dictated the anomaly to his assistant, but mistook its gravity until later that week when he called me to schedule excision surgery. Of course, I Wikied up on every aspect of melanoma and Breslow’s Depth tests and 5-year mortality percentages. And I totally freaking freaked out! Hell, I stayed awake till dawn contemplating truncated retirement strategies.
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But as it turned out, we caught the cancer early. Very early. And the 4-inch long, 2-inch wide extraction of lesion and safe margin tissue successfully slayed that dragon.

But the reality of it all did give me pause. Huge pause.

So, look, this whole resolution thing . . .

The revolution of resolutions is an absolute waste of time. If you want to lose weight, then get out there and do what you have to do and lose the weight. If it’s that important to you, then just go out and do it. If you really want to stop smoking – brother Jay – then just effing STOP!

But if it’s not that important to you . . . (THINK ABOUT IT!!!) . . . then take a good long look at yourself and figure out just what the hell it IS that will make you happy, give you peace, calm your soul, make you smile, and bring you bliss. And then craft a plan that gets you there.

Life’s too short for the same old – same old. Be what you want to be. What you need to be. Live as large or small as suits you. Just do it! 😉

I hope to see you when we get there.

Just a thought.