Aging Gracefully: New Year’s Resolutions

The old year is ending, and the new year will soon begin, but with that annual close how many will look and celebrate the completion of their 2024 New Year’s resolutions? What kind of New Year’s resolution did you make, and how many did you complete?

The most popular resolutions are to spend more time with family and friends; get fit and exercise daily or at least several times a week; eat healthier and lose weight; quit smoking; pay off bills and save money; drink less; complete a set goal; and be more organized.

For me, 2024 was the toughest in a long time. The year was rather chaotic and unpredictable with retirement, family trials, financial changes, and no plan, focus, or goals weight, again, eat healthier, find time to write and publish at least one book, and build my financial retirement into a comfortable one.

When making resolutions, it gives us a roadmap, a starting point. It starts with new lifestyle changes by taking time to focus on those resolutions that were not completed or even started, and the secret to completing goals is to make sure they are plausible. Planning is part of the process, then initiating it comes next with determination and tenacity. Dropping poor habits and developing good ones to complete your goals are necessary. Are you up to the challenge?

So many times, the reason for depression and disease, especially in seniors, is isolation and the lack of purpose, but it goes for everyone. Do you know someone, young or old, who does not work or retired and are at home all day with nothing to do but sit, eat, and watch television? What do they look forward to each day? Sitting idle can cause the body and joints to deteriorate and the mind to focus on all things negatively,S which creates the inability to remain mobile. Next, the back muscles cannot hold up the spine and disability are the foothold to dependence, losing a better way of life filled with joy, health, and financial independence.

“Idle hands and an idle mind are the devil’s playground,” is a saying that is so true. My grandfather always said that keep kids busy and they have no time to get into trouble, but that also is true for older people. Keeping busy allows less time to focus on our troubles, while at the same time improving our lives. So many people turn to drugs and a bottle when problems arise rather than sitting down and figuring out how to turn their lives around. “To every problem is a solution, if you only sit down long enough to think about it,” was my grandfather’s advice, and it is advice that I have always taken to heart and followed throughout my life. Drugs or alcohol solve nothing and once you sober up, the problem is still there, but now it is coupled with a headache, a diseased liver, no teeth and poverty.

So, what does setting goals and New Year’s resolutions do for those who want success, a healthy life filled with joy, and independence? It provides a written goal to work for and accomplish, one with inner desire and a need to accomplish it. Goals are dreams that may seem impossible, but like a mountain before you, climbing it is within your grasp by taking small steps, (the plan to get there) one at a time. Seeing yourself getting closer to the goal helps to fuel the desire to keep going.

It is important to write down those resolutions and keep them in front of you, as well as the progress you are making on them. We all fail, but it’s those failures that force us to try harder and do better in order to succeed in reaching the goal. In the end, completing

that New Year’s resolution and keeping it throughout the year lifts our spirits and creates a determination to make a new goal, knowing that we are capable of completing it.

“Aging gracefully,” is about staying healthy and happy throughout life, and continually setting goals with the intention and desire to reach them. So, write down those New Year’s resolutions, and for each one, sit down and devise a plan to complete them. For me, the last week of 2024 is about planning for 2025, so upon day one, starting to focus on my spiritual goal will be taking time each morning once again to have coffee with the Lord, studying his word, and asking him for the guidance, tenacity, and temperance to complete it. After that, exercise, writing, and financial planning will follow. What are your goals and plans for the coming year?