I’m reluctant to make resolutions for the new year.  I’m afraid that resolutions are too often framed in a negative and backward-looking way. They’re more about fixing past faults in myself, rather than in fitting myself for the future.  2023 will be a new year, with new challenges, unforeseen experiences, unknowable circumstances.  It won’t necessarily help to be an improved version of who I was.  What I need to be is a new person for a new world.

So rather than specific self-improvement projects about going to the gym or watching what I eat, or spending less time watching TV, I like to welcome each new year with a general principle of how I want to live.  I try to give myself a one word mantra, or a short phrase. a reminder I can apply to whatever comes up.  “Grateful”, maybe.  Or “slow down.”  “Dig deep”  Or “Feet on the ground.”

I’m thinking, “humble” might be my word for 2023.  I still intend to take appropriate pride in my accomplishments.  But I mean to stay aware of my limits, recognize what I don’t know and what I can’t do, or don’t need to do because it isn’t my job.  I’m thinking of those times when human beings need to remember we aren’t the only power in the universe and to let some things find their own way with trust that if necessary someone or something else will attend to them.

Happy New Year, everyone.