New Year, Same Old Resolutions

Today marks the second day of 2015.

Today also marks the time when people drag out their New Year’s resolutions, which for many are the same as last year’s resolutions.

The most popular resolutions year after year tend to revolve around weight loss based on the amount of commercials flooding the airwaves this time of year for gyms and diet programs.

Turn on almost any channel, and the odds are pretty good that in any given commercial break a commercial of some sort of weight loss supplement, program or device will be on.

I revolved to get healthier this year. That resolution will likely be accomplished through weight loss the old fashioned way and will not be accompanied by any crash diets or expensive gym memberships.

More power to those people who will be partaking of the fad diets, but they are not for me.

Another popular resolution this time of year involves many people searching for better jobs.

The better job can be in the form of higher salaries or just increased happiness.

Having a job where one is paid well, challenged and appreciated is always a good thing to find so it is certainly a valiant resolution to find such a thing.

Of course, having a job that one enjoys can go a long way as well.

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have many jobs where it was a joy to go to work. In some cases, this was because the people I worked with made the day more bearable. In other cases, it was the work that was a joy to complete.

These jobs allowed me to cover many memorable events. They also helped me feel like I was part of a worthwhile cause that made a difference.

There have also been jobs that I have had that sucked the creative juices out of me and were a complete drag to go to. These jobs offered little more than a chair that spun and paychecks that cleared on time.

For all of those people in those mind numbing jobs, I wish them more fruitful career pursuits in the New Year. I also hope that they find a rewarding job where their talents are fully utilized.

The new year is also a time for many in the media to compose lists containing the best and worst “fill in the blank” of the previous year.

Over the past few weeks, I have read lists of everything from the best television shows of the last year, to the best plays in college football.

These lists are subjective and are 100 percent in the eye of the beholder. However, it can be fun to see what people found amusing in the previous year.

For the record, I will not be compiling any year end wrap up lists of what I think was the best and worst from the past year.

Another tradition this time of the year is the inclusion of predictions for the year ahead.

This can come in many forms. Predictions often involves an “expert” weighing in on who they feel will be the best in a given sport during the coming year.

As I have mentioned before, I do not really believe in predictions involving sports teams.

There are just too many factors that can impact the outcome of a game, let alone a season. So, trying to predict what will happen really holds little weight in my book.

The College Football Championship Game will feature Oregon and Ohio State this year. While there were certainly some people who saw that coming at the start of the year, I am sure the bulk of people figured it would be Alabama and Florida State.

Despite a game that was not predicted by the majority of “experts,” I feel that the stage is set for one of the more competitive finals in recent years.

In the world of baseball, the consensus preseason favorites for the World Series were noticeably absent in October. Instead, many unexpected teams crashed the playoff party.

In both cases, the games were entertaining despite defying the predictions from the enlightened minds.

My resolution for the New Year would be for people to rely less on what the “experts” say will happen in a game and to spend more time watching the games and letting them unfold as they should.

After all, if all of the outcomes in life were predetermined, life would truly be a boring thing to go through.

Instead of making resolutions that will come and go, just make the most of each day and be the best person that you can be.

If you can do that, the rest will fall into place without the need for crash diets of celery and grapefruit.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some exercise to get to.

Copyright 2015 R. Anderson