Champagne and resolve

"As this year draws to a close, I think about my living," sings John Denver in the Christmas carol, "A Baby Just Like You."

I attempt my best JD imitation while singing and strumming this tune to my grandchildren on Christmas day and stop mid-lyric wondering, "What is my living?"

I wonder, "What can I make of my life in this new year that might mean something?"

Should I lose weight, write a book, say please and thank you more often or attempt to eat less pizza?

I'm not strong enough to limit my pizza intake and don't care to lose more weight, so my focus this new year is on meaningful personal change.

This year I choose to be less critical and become more accepting.

I choose to talk less about people and more to people. I choose to protect my family-time, offering more of me to the people I love.

I decide to take care of the small stuff and let the big stuff take care of itself. These are my New Year's resolutions.

I literally shake my head as Rory, my granddaughter, looks up and pleads, "Gramps, keep singing." I finish the tune with, "Merry Christmas everyone," and return to thinking of purposeful being.

Still dwelling on my purposeful life, I put down my guitar, head to my man-cave and turn on my television to see Chris Bosh high-fiving Dwayne Wade as the Heat tip off with the Mavericks.

These two men make more in one day than my house is worth. Are they happy? They might be. Is being rich and famous the secret to happiness? It can be.

Can I find happiness living a fairly simple life, making a comfortable living while having no fame — absolutely!

I wonder in my 52 years, have I built a life with meaning or is there still work to do? I conclude there is more of me to give this world before I perish, so I promise myself to build a list of who I wish to be in the coming year, how I propose to achieve this wish and what I wish to change in my present life to make the second half of my life purposeful.

The question is daunting, but one can create a purposeful life through planning, goal-setting and making life decisions based on desired outcomes instead of just letting life happen.

If one does not know where one is going, how might one get there? Every journey needs a roadmap.

Every destination requires a plan for arrival.

If one desires to make something of oneself in this life, one might want to plot a path for success.

Setting goals, writing them down and creating a timeline for one to achieve the goals is one secret for reaching one's dream.

Most every important decision in life should be planned. When making an important decision, write down positives and negatives, benefits and deficits and make a thoughtful decision for change.

When deciding to change jobs, get married, have children or move to a new city, putting pencil to paper allows one an opportunity to critically and patiently make logical decisions about emotional issues.

As this new year begins, I once more turn inside myself to mentally plan the year to come.

Professionally, I decide to listen more than I talk, and to read, research and understand before I make judgements or decisions.

Personally, I decide to focus more on family and friends and decide to give more than I get from the people who are important to me.

These resolutions I can keep.

Resolution is not about things but about relationships.

Anyone can lose weight, spend less money or work out more. These are not resolutions for change but semantics for daily living.

It takes a self-actualized, thoughtfully purposeful individual to offer emotion, nurturing, caring and love as a gift to the new year.

The new year is a rebirth, a do-over, an opportunity for change.

If one is not happy with one’s life, make a change.

If one is happy with one’s life, celebrate, drink a glass of Champagne and resolve to continue doing what one is doing.

Celebrate the new year!