Oh, The Best Laid Plans

It’s March, and the year feels shot already. I worked hard on trimming my busy life last year, but we ended up with more puppies. And that changed everything! Of course, we’re down to the last two, and right now they are tussling in the kitchen and you’d think it was a fight to the death!

Add on that, I’m enrolled in multiple schools (webinars) on learning to task my world into a better success. I’m working on my book, learning some software options for the church, building a side-line hustle that will let me stay connected with the world as retirement creeps closer and closer.

In other words, what happened to those year-end and new year resolutions?

Best laid plans of Mice and Men, often go awry.
(Variation of a quote from the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785)

This well-worn phrase is used repeatedly by authors, singers, and those who have seen their plans go awry from the direction they believed they were going. I distinctly remember some promises I made to myself, others, and God.

Things I should’ve done, and they’re probably written down somewhere, but writing them down was probably the worst mistake I made in planning on keeping them. Where’s that list? Unload the mind onto paper and the mind is free to pursue more tasks. Just saying. I’m not so certain a “to do” list is the best thing for me.

This is what I feel today on so many fronts. Days, weeks, and months are history, and my world has not quite righted itself to match my age. Maybe, instead of a list of focused promises, I should have made a contract with myself on how I would keep my focus on what I said I would do!

Of course, we blame the New Year Resolution (NYR) syndrome. We all fail miserably. Emphasize starting a new year, turning a new page, turning over a new leaf, striking out for the new territory. A lot of meaningless words, even if the first step was necessary. We quickly lose our resolve, focus, and eventually, we see that we are far from ever going to keep the NYR that we turn a jaded eye to ever thinking we can make a change.

Perhaps the most important thing is to know where you are, understand where you are headed, and strive to improve – day by day, week, month, and year after year.

Be at War with your Vices,
at Peace with your Neighbours,
and let every New Year find you a better Man. 
~Benjamin Franklin’s 1755 Poor Richard’s Almanac, December

Here’s My Promise

To those that promised me something – I forgive you for not following through.
To those that I have promised something and failed to follow through – I hope you will similarly forgive me.
To myself, it’s time to sharpen the knife and whittle down my over-involved life, and act my age.

Everyone has a plan on how they will improve their lives. You can do nothing about yesterday, today is the starting line, tomorrow is when we measure the results.

Now, you and I may be okay. Especially since you’ve read this far. But, how about all those others who are not catching up with their reading needs? Whether reading, or not, agreeing, or not, let’s pick up our lives and strive to do better this week.