New Year's Resolutions

So many people fail, --Why?

OK, what good are they? I am reminded of Jay Leno, or David Letterman asking the patrons on the streets what their New Year's Resolution are. In my mind is a vague, most likely self created, image of one of the these two TV personalities, probably Mr. Letterman, asking folks whether or not they kept their resolutions. Of course 90%, according to my impeccable memory, say that they don't keep the previous years resolution. Wow, what a waste of time and effort, me thinks!

As I see it, two main problems exist with resolutions: frequency of the resolution or goal setting process, and no review system. Most people who set resolutions do them once a year rendering the value of the goal setting process virtually useless. If we set resolutions once a month and reviewed them at the end of the month, I believe people would find two things happening: the New Year's resolution would become more attainable, and people would become better at setting attainable goals. The way in which most folks do resolutions is doomed to fail because there is no recovery system from failure, i.e. when it's broken, there is no mechanic. That is why yearly resolutions are a bad idea without the use of smaller monthly resolutions. Most people don't bother to review the resolution until next year.

So you ask, "What would be a successful strategy for my New Year's Resolution this year?" Good question, Johny boy! First I would make your New Year's Resolution actually a long term goal for the year, e.g. I will lose 50 lbs. Next, you need to break it down into bite size chunks; lets say monthly goals. Maybe you would say I will lose 12 lbs a month by riding my bicycle 3 times a week for an hour. Now we have a frame work that might work, but it won't work if you never review it; when the month comes up check to see if you have accomplished your goal and adjust your goals so you can hit them next month. If you missed for a week, don't be too hard on yourself, and the most important thing is that you don't give up the whole year just because you had one failure.

If you have crystallized goals that you can visualize it will be a lot easier to hit the mark. With your clear plan of action and monthly review, hopefully it will be easier to say, "No!" to that extra fry, or to get onto that bicycle, collecting dust, in the garage. So for all of you New Year's Resolutioners, I hope this will offer some useful advice on how to make them actually stick this year.

Peace Protests

In free countries why do individuals protest for peace? Would these same people protest raped women to stop rape? These actions are logically equivalent.

It is always difficult when one loses a family member: as a society we should never take lightly the loss of any of our military members. Families suffer the most when war is waged. Men and women who fight in wars often return home jaded by their experiences; sometimes, they do not return at all. If you are human and feeling, your heart can't help but go out to these individuals with broken lives.

On the other hand, does the fact that we are losing military members change the fact our nations have been attacked. Will protesting for peace stop terrorists from flying planes into our buildings? Would begging for peace from nations under attack stop bombs from being detonated in the Chechnya school or on Spanish buses? It seems that all to often we humans respond first with our emotions, with out fully considering the ramifications of our actions.

Let's put this into perspective, would you try to stop a bully from bullying kids by asking the bullied kid to be peaceful? Prior to WWII this very kind of reckless reasoning was rampant: Peace at all costs-- to the cost of millions of lives. Don't the protesters for peace see that sometimes we must indeed fight for peace, as ironic as it sounds, or we will be backed into corner where all our freedoms including peace are exterminated. I think it was best put by Kenny Rogers in his song "Coward of the County": " Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek, and Papa, I sure hope you understand:
Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man."

So if peaceful nations are attacked do we always have to pick up our ball and go play somewhere else, or is there a time when it is appropriate for us to stand up and say, "NO MORE!"

Barry's Musings

This is a new idea for me. This will be a place to express my thoughts and opinions, and maybe a resource to gather helpful ideas I have found in my current occupation as an ESL teacher in South Korea.

So in the spirit of my musing let me start by examining the very definition of "muse" as found on http://www.thefreedictionary.com/muse

muse(myz)
v. mused, mus·ing, mus·es
v.intr. To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation.
v.tr. To consider or say thoughtfully: mused that it might take longer to drive than walk.
n. A state of meditation.

This says it all for me! It is good to reflect and contemplate deeply the state of the world's affairs; for such examination hopefully leads us to wise well thought out actions when the world throws its chaos at us. With careful examination and --musing-- may we hopefully eliminate or modify our future responses to fellow citizens of earth that produce negative impact. With the aid of great writers and authors of humanity such as Winston Churchill, Plato and Jesus let us muse together in order that we may solve some of the world's problems.