Like rules, resolutions made to be broken

Resslin' Around, by Casey Ressler

Following New Year's Day, everybody always wants to tell you their resolution, and always wants you to set one with them.

I try to refrain from making resolutions, mainly because nobody likes a quitter, and everybody quits on those resolutions by Jan. 17 on average. I don't want to fall into that trap, so I hesitate to make a resolution.

I believe in setting goals and trying to achieve them, both professionally and at home, but you have to be realistic, something that obviously wasn't told to the resolution-making crowd.

"I'm going to lose 75 pounds by March," somebody will say at a New Years Eve party, at the stroke of midnight, all the while they are eating thirds and fourths of the crab dip made with mayonnaise. "Man, this dip is great. Can I get the recipe?"

Uh, maybe not, Turbo. Ask me again in March and I'll give it to you.

"This year I'm going to be a better husband to my wife and spend more time with her," another guy told me. "How about you, Casey?"

"Does that mean we don't get to go fishing at all this summer? I'm a pretty good husband, and I get to go fishing," I told him. "Does this mean you are going to be watching Hugh Grant movies with her every weekend instead of catching trout with me?"

"Wow, maybe," he said. "I never thought of it that way. Maybe I'll just try to lose weight again this year. But Four Weddings and a Funeral was a pretty good flick."

Yeah, right. I knew I didn't have to waste any time finding a new fishing partner.

I'll bet that about 90 percent of the resolutions made focus on losing weight, while the other 10 percent of them are about quitting smoking. So if you are a thin nonsmoker, completely disregard resolutions -- you are evidently perfect. If you are a fat smoker, good luck, man, because you're going to need it. There's big competition out there. Luckily, I'm a fat nonsmoker, so I'm about average you could say.

January is a fresh start on the calendar, and it gives people a fresh start in life. But the biggest point to be made is to do things because you want to do them, not because it's Jan. 1 and it's hip to make up something that sounds cool at the watercooler at work when everybody else is telling you about their grand resolutions.

Take my sister for example. Last year, she didn't make a resolution in January. But come March, she decided she wanted to lose some weight. Now, more than nine months later, after eating right and exercising, she has dropped more than 60 pounds and looks fantastic.

She didn't do it because it was a new year and she felt obligated to make a resolution, she did it because she wanted to -- and she is continuing to do it.

If you wait until Jan. 1 to come up with ideas to better yourself, you're wasting your time -- especially if you quit on those ideas come February.

If you really want to better yourself, you will constantly be thinking about new goals to set, and the calendar won't matter. You'll lose the weight in June, quit smoking in August or become a better husband in April.

It takes a commitment to do those things, not a month or date.

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) is the Valley Life editor. His resolution is to "unlearn" everything he knows about Hugh Grant movies, which, unfortunately, is more than he'll admit publicly.