Resolved: Oh, Hell, Why Bother?

Another year, another lie. I mean, why DO we persist in deceiving ourselves? These New Year's resolutions never work. I know it. You know it.

"I'll be good (for a change)", we tell ourselves. And we actually mean it. And we try. And, inevitably, we fail. And then what? Regret, guilt, self-recrimination for being so pathetically weak-willed. It's just not worth it.

I wonder, do you happen to know what day researchers have pronounced the "The Worst Day of the Year"? It's January 24th.  

Why? Several reasons, they say. Winter weather's about as bad as it gets. Christmas bills are coming in. And, significantly, it's right about that time that most people are realizing that, no matter how well-intentioned they were when they made those high-minded promises to themselves called New Year's Resolutions, they are, once again, going down in flames in defeat.

(Incidentally, January 24th happens to be MY very own birthday. You may take from that what you will.)

Okay, okay. If you insist. I'll try. But just one--one little one--something reasonably achievable.

I hereby resolve to be less cynical. From now on I'm going to try to see the brighter side of things. I promise to wear my rose-colored glasses for at least one hour a day, no matter how much they make my head hurt. I'll see the glass as half full, even if it's cracked. I'll look for the silver lining in every boiling, black storm cloud that loooms up on the horizon. I'll strive to be all I can be. I'll reach for the stars.

That shouldn't be so hard. Should it?