It’s that time of year again when I should review what has passed and make resolutions for what is to come. You might be wondering why I’m writing this on the second day of January when it’s something that’s especially reserved for the first. There are two reasons, one of which is true. Reason number one is that I wanted to wait for the whole world to receive 2009 before they read “Happy 2009″ at the end of my post (because FYI, these notes have readers form all over the world 
). Reason number two is that I had gone out tonight and couldn’t make it before midnight to publish this post. Whatever the case, here I am writing to you again. Read on to see my resolutions this year …
- Control your attention. The idea is that changing our trajectory once in a while can be good, even necessary, but changing it too often can make us miss out on a lot. (It’s the exploration vs. exploitation problem, and for a different approach but same idea see here.) To elaborate further on this topic, I would have to go over the myriad of decisions I’ve made over the past year. Instead, I’ll turn your attention to this wonderful quote from David Brooks — also an inspiration for this resolution, which says,
Control of attention is the ultimate individual power. People who can do that are not prisoners of the stimuli around them. They can choose from the patterns in the world and lengthen their time horizons. This individual power leads to others. It leads to self-control, the ability to formulate strategies in order to resist impulses. [...] It leads to resilience, the ability to persevere with an idea even when all the influences in the world say it can’t be done. [...] It leads to creativity. Individuals who can focus attention have the ability to hold a subject or problem in their mind long enough to see it anew.
- Be great and kind to family and friends. Make them feel lucky they know you. If you see you can help out with something, do so without being asked. But you need to be constant and predictable in being great so you can become dependable.
- Welcome happiness with open arms. Don’t avoid being happy all your waking hours. Let the smallest achievements, acts of kindness, and living minutes be reasons for happiness. Don’t judge me as old-fashioned when I sing,
You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
It’s a song we were taught and made to sing in Grade 3. I guess I’m beginning to understand the value in its lyrics after 14 years
That’s it. And now the review of the past: Read the rest of this entry »
