With the shadow of the past year in our rear view, 2018 looms shiny bright with a promise of new opportunities to repair, correct, or adjust those foibles and shortcomings that make us fat, lazy, or just plain unproductive. As the years pass, I look upon the touting of the “New Year” with a chuckle and not a little apprehension. How many times can you take on a new diet, add a house cleaning schedule to your January calendar, swear you will go to bed earlier – with the promise of getting out of bed earlier as a benefit, or commit to a new exercise routine, only to abandon this resolve in a few short days – or if your really good, a week or two?  February, the great memory cleanse of a month, finds us reaching for the leftover Lindt chocolate and the snooze button, forget the gym membership and the dirty toilet!

Now as I embark on my 60th year (as my father would say), I resist the run to resolve and renewal.  Instead, I set goals. In 2017, I set a goal to get up and mount the elliptical for a minimum of 15 minutes before work. Only on work days. (It was my game – my rules.) And I did it! I was pretty chuffed with the accomplishment. In the end, I hadn’t lost weight, I didn’t feel healthier, and I certainly did not enjoy it, but I did it. Perhaps it was the sleeveless girls barking the news and weather at me as I pumped at the machine  that inspired me but I don’t think so. I will never have the toned upper arms or flat belly of a 30 year old and besides, they must be freezing wearing those tiny dresses in December.  I don’t expect great things from a resolution or my goal, but I felt pretty good having stuck with it (even with my flabby arms and long sleeves).

So now I have 48 hours or so to come up with another goal.  At the very least, meet me at the elliptical on Tuesday at 5:45!