Recently I started thinking about New Year’s resolutions and realized that it is very difficult to order change into life with half-hearted declarations. The roots of change must be deeper than that, more sincere.

Given the fact that resolutions have yet to come to fruition for many of us, it is easy to give up hope. In my way of looking at it, I just haven’t figured out the most effective way to make that happen. Sure, setting easy goals is a good way to make them happen, but real, meaningful change is hard to come by. It requires suffering, something which human nature tends to avoid.

We all have become creatures of comfort, living in warm and dry homes, wearing technologically-advanced fabrics and shoes that breathe yet are waterproof, we have restaurants that will readily feed us for a pittance and grocery stores stocked better than the pantries of mighty King Solomon. He could only dream of having the variety of foods available at any one of our stores today. Imagine that — you and I have access to resources of which the most wealthy man in the world could only dream. Coconuts, plantains, corn, cherries, strawberries, rutabagas, fresh flowers and herbs, all available at our fingertips, in season or out, instantly.

Some of us, myself included, are paid to do jobs that require us to sit and type or think our way through things that we use to acquire cash that we then use to feed our families. The very system is so convoluted that it is hard to see the end result in the beginning. It is not the pure, simple way of actually going out and hunting down meals or scratching a meager living out of the hard mountain soil the way our forefathers did. They knew about suffering.

Many of us are blissfully unaware of how pampered we really are. In fact, we feel we’ve come to deserve it.

Therefore, making changes that might require, perish at the thought, ‘suffering,’ sounds rather ridiculous. Having said that, I might note here that I still have things I’d like to improve in life. I’ve often thought that those who decide they can’t improve are destined to live a life pockmarked by failure or worse, an existence so lackluster and boring, so humdrum and monotonous that reality itself slips away into obscurity.

Constant improvement is definitely a goal, one for which I strive continuously.

Well, maybe not continuously. My life is much like the tides, with positive change sometimes charging in to storm the beaches, only to fade into the background, unearthing the litter of failure on the shores of life.

But to know the difference is the main thing. Ben Franklin once said that the problem with doing nothing was knowing when you’re finished. I say old Ben was right. One who does nothing is never finished. But one who starts a good work will, one day, see it perfected.

Perhaps then I should forego my concerns on my inability to face even the slightest suffering with bravery and instead declare the change to come with boldness to whomever will listen. Perhaps speaking things into existence isn’t the only way to get them done, but it’s a sight better than keeping quiet and failing alone. Better for everyone to know I’ve tried to ascertain a great height and fallen than to have stayed close to the crowd on the ground to declare a hollow victory. I was looking back on the goals of the past year and realized that some were actually realized, while others still litter my seashore, so to speak.

A Few Good Goals

I plan to start my workout regimen again, especially after I saw a television special about a few men whose health and longevity were remarkable. Their secret? Staying active all the time. I suppose there were a few mornings when they arose and thought to themselves, “I don’t want to do this today.” Those are the thoughts that must be beaten into submission to acquire the ultimate goal of a healthier body.

However, I must say the buttons on the remote control, the reclining chair’s lever and the snooze bar on the clock all have lost more of their finish than the barbells around my house.

That having been said, I hope to make my first goal to return to a regular regimen at the Wellness Center. I was doing well for a good while last year, until I found other work to occupy my time, which later led to excuses for not getting back into the routine. Added back to the list this year is to read the entire Bible in one year. Last year, I made it through about half of the book before leaving my plan behind to go back to my skipping around nightly reading method after I realized there was no hope of finishing the plan.

Basically, that means I retreated strategically without surrendering. The Bible is one book that I can read 50 times and always find something new and fresh. I’m going to make it this year and I’m going to follow my course outline.

I also hope to help people more and think less of myself. So often we get caught up in ourselves and fail to help those with real needs and problems. Good folks like that surround us and could use our attention or charity (which translates love in old English).

I want to be able to remember to put that 2006 on all my checks this year, not fall back into my old 2005 habit.

I plan to clear all the old papers, notes and other rubbish around my desk. If you’ve not seen it in six months, you probably don’t need it. In closing, I want to be more thankful in general for all I have been given and for all with which I have been blessed.

I pray this is a year that we can all look back upon as a time of great hope, for our families, our friends and our nation.

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