Starting anew

“Kindness, kindness, kindness.
I want to make a New Year’s prayer,
not a resolution. I’m praying for courage.”
— American writer Susan Sontag, 1933-2004

As we welcome and ring in the new year of 2025, many of us take a moment to reflect on the past year and think about how we’d like to improve ourselves, starting with a 365-page blank slate.
We make resolutions to change our habits, to become better versions of ourselves, to reach new goals. I know I have in the past.
To lose weight — again. To begin exercising — again — or at the very least exercise my right to Taco Tuesday. To stop procrastinating — eventually. To wear less Under Armour. To wear more Under Armour. To stop double-dog daring people to lick frozen flagpoles. To tell the doctor the truth, not just what he wants to hear. To stop referring to autumn as Pumpkin Spice Latte Season. To stop lying to myself about following New Year’s resolutions.
But how many of us actually stick to those New Year’s resolutions?
Not many, truth be told, with a success rate running at an abysmal 9-12%.
As American actress and director Joey Lauren Adams once quipped, “May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions.”
I think the problem with finding success is that we don’t really think about why we’re making resolutions in the first place. Is it because it’s an annual good-intentioned pop culture tradition or do we genuinely want to make positive, substantive, lasting changes in our lives?
Over my lifetime, admittedly I’ve embraced the former and given lip service to the latter.
Heading for the milestone big 6-0 in February, it’s really time for this Peter Pan to grow up and face the grim reality that stares me down in the mirror every morning. I’m not getting any younger and need to get serious about the better-version-of-me resolution thing — and I’m not talking about perfecting my charcuterie board skills. I’m talking about serious, substantive, positive lasting change — for a change.
Oscar Madison’s pastrami-on-rye-washed-down-with-a-beer fueled journalistic lifestyle in The Odd Couple might make for entertaining TV and a good live studio audience laugh reaction, but it definitely takes its toll in real life over the course of a 36-year newspaper career. Just ask my surgeon and my pharmacist, HIPPA medical privacy regulations notwithstanding.
There’s nothing like 12 days in the hospital, clawing day by day, hour by hour and minute by minute, out of the dark medical abyss, and the associated long nights of the soul in a hospital bed, tethered to tubes and machines, to reorient your head and life priorities.
So this year, with the turn of the calendar page, I’m being serious about making resolutions to change my habits, to become a better version of myself, to reach new goals.
To lose weight — for real. To begin exercising — this time with a membership to the local fitness club. To stop procrastinating. To wear more, but smaller-sized Under Armour. To tell the doctor — and my wife — the truth about whatever medical questions they ask. And yes, to stop referring to autumn as Pumpkin Spice Latte Season and stop double-dog daring people to lick frozen flagpoles.
And, I also resolve to laugh more and stress less, even around deadlines, and to find ways to do more things that bring joy — to myself and those around me, purposefully cultivating a sense of peace and contentment that’s hard to find in this world.
All resolutions are worth keeping.
Eric Johnson can be reached at eric@fyinorthwoods.com.