I'm ready for 2022. Are you?

A Few Goals for 2022

I have never given much significance to the turning of the calendar page from one year to the next, and I've had 75 of those opportunities if practice means anything. The new year, however, provides an opportunity to check human progress and I've availed myself of that for the past number of years. 

Two that shall remain without number are: laugh more, cuss less. I need a trainload more of both.

Here's what I've come up with for 2022, a Top 10+, as it were, in no particular order of significance.

1. Remaining sober for the 28th straight year is the short-term goal here, but I want to improve that sobriety by being the best person I can be. Being sober for an alcoholic is not the end-all. It is simply the beginning of an opportunity, one that comes on a daily basis. A sober mind is an open mind--or at least a more open mind.

2. Spirituality is one of the elements in remaining sober and I want to intensify that effort. This is not a religious effort, but one where the god of my understanding leads me, and all I ask for is directions and good sense to follow them. 

3. Maintain my weight. I started 2021at 205, ended at 202. Still, I want to get to about 190 in order to be truly healthy (and ride my bike again). Staying where I am has not been difficult, so I think I need to shoot for a weight that takes some effort.

4. Eat better and exercise harder. I've fallen into some bad habits that I need to break, including eating sweets. We know we are what we eat, which has made me something of a carb warrior in the past few months. My exercise regimine has become much less intense in the past couple of years and I can feel it, especially when I am on a hiking trail with an incline or more miles than I am accustomed to.

5. Be a good friend, a good dad (when possible), and a good grandfather. I do the friend and grandpa thing pretty well, in my estimation. Being a dad is where I have always been weakest and try as I might, I always seem to come up short in my own estimation. I need to take some time to evaluate why that is and what being a good father means. Maybe I should ask my son, the best dad I know.

6. Stop my thoughtless and rude conversation habit of talking over people and not fully listening. Give others the opprotunity to finish their thoughts before jumping in and stop thinking about my response before it is time to give one. 

7. I have been told for years that my enthusiasm can be intimmidating, but I have never before done anything about it because it is a character trait that identifies me. I'm having second thoughts and have begun to tone down the noise and level of the energy.

8. Stop making guesses for answers that I don't know. Simply say, "I don't know, but I can help you find the answer if you'd like." When I give a wrong answer, it destroys my credibility.

9. I am frugal because I have always had to be. I know how to find a deal and how to prioritize my spending. But I need to stop talking so much about the cost of things. It is not a good look, or sound.

10. Complete my effort to put writers and artists in the region together on a monthly basis for conversation, networking and companionship. People with an artistic bent often tend to isolate, but we have the need to be around others with like minds on a regular basis. What I am calling Persiflage* ("light banter") should kick off in the spring at lunch time on a Wednesday or Thursday in Roanoke. I have sent out invitations to some of the brightest, most creative people I know and 30 have come back with enthusiastic positive responses. Now, it's time to nail down the details. I may send out more invitations as creatives' names come up and if you qualify and want to be one of us, please let me know.

10a. Give those with political views that I find repugnant (generally Republicans and Trumpers) a chance to show their humanity before permanently putting them on a list of undesirables. I understand that there are legitimate political differences, but I can't abide the violent dismantling of our government, taking people's voting rights away, eliminating the right to choose what to do with our bodies, and a wide array of other atrocities. But I can listen and try to understand. Maybe we can find common ground.

10b. Be a better partner to the Princess. I have much work to do here and am willing to do it. What I need is direction and I will find it.

Happy 2022. I hope it challenges you and that you respond. And I wish that for myself, as well.

(*This would actually be Persiflage II, since we did this with the same name some years ago. It was wildly successful, I will add.)