Choosing a New Year’s Resolution

Today is a day when some people are worrying about making the right new year’s resolution. My suggestion is to pick a new year’s resolution that points to the kind of action that you can take every day and the kind of result that will make a lasting change in your life. I would also suggest that the way you make a new year’s resolution is important. Give it serious thought. Make it consistent with the way you’re living your life and where you’re going.

When you choose a new year’s resolution thoughtfully, you get an advantage that most people who make resolutions don’t have. You get the power of decision. Most resolutions, and most of the decisions people make, are really just spontaneous emotional reactions. There may be some emotional power behind these resolutions, but it fades away as soon as your emotions change. That’s the reason most new year’s resolutions fail. But if you think carefully about something and make a decision, there is a much better chance it will lead to something. In fact, people who make thoughtful decisions more often tend to be more successful in life. If you’re trying to pick a new year’s resolution, use that situation as an opportunity to make a real decision. Just by approaching it that way, regardless of the specific resolution you choose, you’re practicing the pattern of decision-making that will tend to make your life a success.

Snow Day

It’s probably the biggest snowstorm of the winter here, with 10 to 15 inches recorded in the local area. I was snowed in yesterday as the snow fell, and I am staying home again today, with no special reason to brave the roads, many still covered with packed snow.

Two snow days in a row gives me a chance to get some things done. But does this mean I can catch up on everything that has been piling up? Not likely!

The snow day, of course, is just another version of the rainy day I write about in Fear of Nothing. We save things to do as if we will have a chance to do them on a rainy day, but usually, all this really means is that we will not be doing them. We are so connected to the world today that free time is surprisingly scarce.

Clearing the Dining Room

The dining room, after clearing most of the stuff away

Many houses have a room that serves as a clutter magnet. The room’s original purpose, whatever it was, has been buried under all the stuff that no one knows what to do with. Whatever people have, if they don’t know where to put it, this room is where it is most likely to end up. Most often, the room in question is the dining room.

And that’s what it was in my house. From the day I moved in, the dining room was just a place to plop things down. I did not even own a dining table, so the idea of using the dining room for dining seemed remote. Still, I didn’t like the idea of a room just filled with miscellaneous stuff. I was sure I would want to use the room for something, so I decided to clear it all out.

“I Don’t Know What I’m Going to Do Today”

In my last post, I suggested that when you get to the point of saying, “I finally got caught up!” you use the extra leverage of that situation to get caught up in other areas of your life. If you take that approach, you may soon get to the point where you wonder whether there is anything more for you to do — where you look at your schedule and say, “I don’t know what I’m going to do today.”

It is not that there is nothing to do, but the few things on your list look like they might take you only a few hours to complete. What do you do then?

“I Finally Got Caught Up!”

I finally got caught up.

I’m talking about my online media list. There used to be a long list of magazines, newsletters, movies, and podcasts for me to look at and listen to on the Internet. As of late this morning, I got through them all. I also caught up on my e-mail — at least, I read every message that has come in.

But the fact that it took me so long to get to this point tells me something is off.

Bob Doyle Video on Limiting Beliefs

A difficulty many people have in breaking free of their to-do lists and clutter is the seeming conflict between that challenge and the law of attraction. The law of attraction seems to say, “Don’t pay any attention to your to-do list or your clutter, because if you do, it will just expand on you.” Yet that strategy does not work either. People try to pretend that the clutter and to-do list do not exist, and what happens? The clutter still gets deeper, and the to-do list continues to get longer.

“I Lost All My Files!”

It was a day like today when my computer went kablooey.

Around this time last year, the power went out, and the computer whirred to a stop. The next time I tried to start up the computer, it destroyed my user account. The computer literally wouldn’t boot up until the user account, which contained all my personal files, was removed. I had to save my files, but how? It took more than a day of trial and error before I managed to create a new account and save all but five of the files from the old account.

That was lucky. Those episodes don’t always turn out so well. On other occasions, I’ve lost days of work and months of e-mail messages. And there is always a chance of losing everything that’s on a computer or any other device where you have files. At least five times a year, I hear from someone who says, “I lost all my files! What can I do?” It seems to happen to everyone eventually: a broken hard drive, a misplaced CD, a stolen laptop, or a phone that won’t turn on. And then an important file that could so easily have been copied and secured the day before is gone forever. Or, in the worst case, all the files are gone.

“I Don’t Know What to Do”

“I don’t know what to do.”

This is the biggest thing keeping people from improving their lives. They don’t know what to do because they don’t know what they really want to do. Often people just muddle along until things get so bad that they know they have to change something — and more importantly, then they have a pretty good idea of what kind of change they want to make.

But you don’t have to sit around waiting for something to happen to give you that kind of clarity. The next time you feel bored with life, instead of checking to see what’s on television, check to see what’s on . . .