No Excuses

It's January 3rd. Have you broken your New Year's Resolutions yet?

Joking aside, I love making resolutions. Whether it's getting in shape physically or spiritually, promising to connect with friends more, or just working on cutting down on the amount of TV I subject myself to (Do I REALLY need to watch "Survivor 27: The South Hamptons) I am a big believer in putting a goal down on paper, and then going for it.

Funny thing is, life throws better curveballs than Greg Maddux. I've kept my New Year's resolutions/goals for several years and went back to read some of them before making my "plans" for 2008. I now understand the wisdom behind the old saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

For some reason, in 1999, I listed 25 things I wanted to do. To the best of my knowledge I completed 3 items on the list. The most bizarre goal was to "Learn to play golf." Side note: I can't stand golf. I can think of 8 billion things I'd rather do than either play or watch golf. This includes putt-putt. To think that I could learn this game that is so foreign to me in a year, is pretty lame. Almost as lame as the only golfer I DO like: Charles Barkley.



In 2005, I came up with the catchy slogan "Simplify in 2005." I work in advertising, so I guess I thought a clever tag line would do the trick. And I love the notion of slowing down and enjoying life more by doing less. But considering that I changed jobs and my wife had our second baby, I'm not sure how successful I was in keeping things simple.

But despite the setbacks and the hurdles that inevitably come up, I will continue to make resolutions. They help me push myself to learn new things and unlearn some things as well. And if I come up short, so what. To paraphrase the words of the famous shoe company, it's better to just do it than not do it at all. (hmmm...now THERE'S a slogan.)