January 9, 2025 · 0 Comments
BRIAN LOCKHART
FROM THE SECOND ROW
Put that cigarette out, go for a two-mile jog, come home and read a book, call your best friend and visit with family, then spend the evening working on your new hobby.
That should take care of most of your New Year’s resolutions if you’ve made commitments for 2025.
Add to that your itinerary for a trip to Iceland or the Galapagos Islands and your dream to ‘swim with the dolphins.’
New Year’s resolutions – what are they good for? Absolutely nothing.
I’m not sure where the idea of changing your lifestyle because the calendar says it’s a new year comes from, but a year is just an arbitrary point in time. Jan. 1, really signifies nothing other than a point in space and time.
The ancients could have decided the new year started in July and we would be watching the ball drop on July 1.
This year, as always, there is a list that comes out and states the most popular New Year’s resolutions. I’m not sure how it’s actually created, because no one asked me. However, the list does seem reasonable.
Saving more money tops the list this year. This is understandable. With the inflation over the past couple of years, everyone has less money in their pocket.
You can try saving more, but you’re definitely going to pay in other ways. Whether it’s giving up going out for dinner once a week or resigning your position as the bowling team captain to save the cost of lane fees, you may save money, but at the cost of entertainment or enjoying life.
Exercising more is number two on the list.
This is always a good one, but the easiest one to fail. Workout gyms love this resolution.
They make a ton of money from people signing up for the gym in January, then watch as that three times a week visit to the gym becomes twice a week, then once, then – wow, I haven’t been to the gym in months.
Losing weight is always a popular resolution. But why do you need to wait until New Year’s?
If you are overweight, you can start working on eating less and shedding pounds any time during the year.
Quitting smoking is always high on the list. When was the last time you saw someone smoking? It has become a hidden addiction, no doubt about it.
You shouldn’t smoke, but the tobacco companies are still taking in millions from people’s bad habits.
This year, spending less time on social media made the list.
This is one EVERYONE needs to participate in. Some people used to refer to television as the ‘idiot box’ because you sit there just watching a screen.
The difference is that all television programs have an ending. Social media never stops.
We have become a society that is losing the natural ability to speak directly to people. It’s too easy to stare at a screen and make comments, rather than sit down and have a conversation with a real person.
To do more for the environment has made the list this year. Good luck with that.
Everyone talks a good game, however, from the number of beer cans and coffee cups, sacks of garbage and household items dumped in the ditches in rural concessions, a lot of people simply don’t care.
No one will ever admit they are the person who threw that coffee cup out of the window of the car, but they probably talk about saving the environment when at work or at their community service club meeting.
Cutting down on alcohol consumption made the list, but it makes the list every year.
Considering the amount of beer sales in the province, I don’t think too many people actually carry through with cutting back on alcohol.
Also, remember during the pandemic, the provincial government ordered many non-essential businesses to cease operation, however, the liquor store was exempt. That, says a lot.
There are plenty of other resolutions people hope to try in the new year.
Go ahead, give it a try – why not? Even if you fail, it was a least a goal for a while. Better to try, and fail, than not try at all.
My resolution this year will be to cut down my time on the golf course and spend that time doing something more meaningful.
Other than taking up the sport at a local 9-hole course for one summer when I was 14, when it was affordable to play a round funded by paper route money, I’ve never played a real game of golf in my life, so this should easily be accomplished.