New Years Resolution x 12

So this year I did something rather new.  Instead of deciding, arbitrarily to change my life starting New Years Day, I would instead make a series of smaller, more manageable improvements.  See, when you decide you need to turn your life upside down and do everything at once, it makes it, well, too hard.  Also, the moment you break one of your resolutions, you often find yourself figuring you blew it and you cave to all.

Well look no further than this 12 month approach.  Each month you decide to take up one doable challenge.  The idea is that if you cut out a bad habit or addiction for three weeks, you will probably no longer be so controlled by it.  Additionally, if you add a new habit to your regimen for a month, you have a pretty good chance at sticking with it, at least partially so.

Think of something small you can do that would just make your health or life a bit better.  Then do it for a month.  If you’re cutting something bad out of your life, you know you’re not giving up your vice completely, but putting it off for a set amount of time.  If you’re adding something new, you will know that you can accomplish it regularly, and after the month is over you might manage to keep it up.

Try something not so hard first… perhaps give up red meat for a month.  You know you’ll come back to it after the month is over, but when you do come back, you won’t find yourself eating red meat quite as often.  Try to brush your teeth one extra time every day each month and then after that, you might find yourself brushing that extra time five or six times a week. Not bad, right?

March for me, is going to be the month of vegetarianism.  I eat meat pretty often, and I think I would do well to cut back.  Leave a smaller carbon footprint, consume less calories a day, get more vitamins and antioxidants… good, yes?  Come April, I will begin eating meat again, but I’ll have learned lots of new vegetarian friendly recipes and I’ll probably generally not want to eat meat so often.

So think about it, make 12 small resolutions to yourself to just cut back or do that little something extra.  No need to wait till next New Years.  Start now; make small and manageable promises to yourself and then feel good when you stick to them.

McCain: Finger-wagger!

That’s the 2008 version of 2004’s Flip-Flopper. In 2006, prior to the midterm elections, John McCain wagged his finger at all the seemingly fair-weather republicans (hah) for trying to distance themselves from Bush. He told us that he wasn’t going to be running for president even though many people on both sides thought he would be a good idea (at the time). He scolded his republican allies for priding themselves on how they differ from George Bush and proceeded to tell us to stand by our president. Because he is our president.

Does anyone besides me remember this?

Anyways, back when people wanted him to run and he didn’t want to run, he wagged his finger at all the naughty republicans and all of us democrats for abandoning Bush. Well, now that he’s the front running republican, I wonder if people will remember such insults. Are you going to let it slide that he told us to stand behind Bush simply because he is our president? I’m not going to respect anyone who says to follow authority simply because it is authority.

Along those lines, check out this buried gem by Guiliani:

“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”

The Switch: Political Parties and Progressiveness

What did you call me? A progressive?! I’m not sure if I’m offended or pleased…

America’s two political parties have, in a sense, switched places. The party formerly known as conservative is now the party interested in pushing new frontiers and reshaping the world, reshaping old business models, and getting involved heavily in global affairs. Yes, you heard me. The republican party can now proudly be called the party of progressives.

Take for example, outsourcing of customer support call centers to other countries. The republican party is in favor of allowing American companies to take jobs overseas; using the capabilities of global telecommunications, companies can outsource call centers and throw a big wrench into old business models that were limited by long-distance telecommunications costs. The democratic party is interested in protecting American jobs and keeping companies from fully taking advantage of the capabilities of new technologies.

Obviously, the republican party is also greatly interested in playing a large role in international events – being involved in conflicts that don’t involve America necessarily. Now the democrats could be considered the isolationists: wanting to decrease the size of the military, keeping focus on domestic concerns, letting other countries duke it out, so to speak.

In defense, climate change is a big deal, and the more we can do to improve our ability to move forward into the twenty first century with our green foot forward, the better. Additionally, we will need some time to fix all the things that have been neglected for the last 7 years. Namely, Americans.

Really, there is a lot to be said for both sides, but it can’t be denied how labels can change right from under our noses.