One Word 365: Discipline

Towards the very end of 2013, I stumbled upon a website that intrigued me with it's premise. The site is "OneWord365.com", and the premise of the program is that you choose one word you want to focus on in the coming year.

Such a simple premise, but one with the potential for a great deal of power. Almost any New Year resolution that anyone has ever made can be boiled down to one word, so I decided to give the program a try. And so here we are today.

My one word is "discipline", though I don't mean it in the negative sense, where punishment is involved (though at times it may seem like a punishment is going on, for sure.) No, my efforts are more towards the concept of "self-discipline", the training and control of oneself and one's conduct which is usually undertaken for personal improvement.

Frankly, I feel that my life could use a little personal improvement in a number of areas, and my own efforts at undertaking greater discipline in those areas this year could, if successful, mean major, positive change in my life. Those main areas include diet, exercise, finance, and what I am calling "presentation", how I am presenting myself to the outside world.

I realize it is nothing more than a concept at this point, a thought in my head, supported only by the idea being expressed in some words here at my website. But I am going to begin planting that idea, specifically that word "discipline", into my consciousness, and am going to begin taking action towards greater self-discipline as well.

Lent: Still Time to Re-Dedicate Yourself

You've had two shots at it now. First came your 'New Year Resolution' to quit smoking, begin a diet, start exercising, read more, go back to school, end a damaging relationship, whatever. Then came Ash Wednesday, and with it the beginning of Lent, and yet another chance to give something up, this time sacrificially.

Okay, so maybe you're 2010 batting average is suffering with an '0 for 2' start to the year. Or maybe you wish that you had added some other item to your list of things to give up or begin as that new beginning or that sacrifice. Maybe you never made any resolution or made any Lenten sacrifice to begin with. It's not too late to begin to dedicate yourself, or to re-dedicate yourself.

As for the idea of a resolution, it's still very early in 2010. We just began March this past week. Almost 10 full months remain in the calendar year. There is plenty of time to make the positive changes to your life that you wanted to make, plenty of opportunity to make 2010 a different year than any other.

And as for a Lenten sacrifice, there is still a full month until Easter Sunday. If you 'gave up' something for Lent but then backslid or caved in to whatever the temptation, you can still make a statement that means something.

Predictions for 2010

I don't own a crystal ball, nor do I have any special psychic powers or connections to the Almighty that would grant me privileged insight.

But I do understand a little bit about what is going on in the world, and it's a challenge to look ahead and try to figure out what a new year may bring.

The following are 10 predictions that I am willing to make for the new year that we just began. Every year brings with it major news developments, exciting sporting accomplishments, political intrigue, public scandals, celebrity gaffes, natural disasters, and other headlines.

We can take a look back at the end of 2010 and see how I faired with these:

1) Israel-Iran War: There is just no way that Israel can allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. If the mullahs are not overthrown and Ahmadinejad kicked out on his apocalpyse-desirous butt within the first few months of the year, Israel cannot wait much longer. It's a bit of an upset that the Israelis have waited this long. This will be huge.

2) American Congress: The Republican Party will make major inroads in both Houses of Congress in the 2010 mid-term elections. Probably not enough to take over either House, unless of course the Obama administration continues to bury the U.S. in debt and continues to take over private industry. My bet is the Dems up for election will paint themselves moderately enough to salvage a slight Dem majority.

End of the Holidays 2008

A quick peak inside Deb and Matt's living room and dining room all decorated for Christmas as the 2008 holiday season winds down on Larkspur Street. Deb and Petey relax as New Year's Day 2009 draws to a close.

New Year Resolutions

What will yours be? To perhaps lose some weight? Statistics show that weight loss, getting in shape, and other such related items are the #1 resolution that folks make for the New Year.

This is going to be the year that you finally drop those extra 10, 20, 50, 80 pounds and whip your sorry butt into real, solid physical condition, and then keep it that way with regular maintenance.

Unfortunately, as I know all too well, the vast majority who make this resolution will drift away from it by the spring, definitely by the summer.

The #2 on the resolution list is perhaps even more likely to fail: quitting smoking. How many times have you said that this will be the year that you put out your last cigarette, and never pick up another?

The 'patch', some type of drugs, your own will power, all of it is begun in an earnest effort to rid yourself of the vile weed. But for smokers, this one usually is surrendered even quicker than a weight-loss resolution.

As far as I can recall, there is only one resolution that I have made in all of the 30 or so years that I have been making them that I have managed to keep. Several years ago I realized that I had gotten away from one of the things that gave me great joy as a young man. That was reading good books. I was reading the newspaper, even reading some articles online, but I hadn't picked up a book in years.

That wasn't the case when I was younger. From the time of my childhood and mostly through my twenties, I read books regularly. So at about age 40, I made the resolution that I was going to read books more.

Another Auld Lang Syne

In 1788, 29-year old Scottish poet Robert Burns sat himself down and wrote a poem that he titled 'Auld Lang Syne', which would literally translate today into "old long since", "long long ago", or even "days gone by."

 It was similar in phrasing and verse to a 1711 work by James Watson, and Burns himself stated that his work was based on an older one.

The song that is traditionally sang today as we ring out an old year and ring in a new one, as we will tonight at midnight, is attributed to Burns and includes the spirit of the older Watson work with Burns own work blended into it.

In this spirit of celebrating another 'auld lang syne' we are remembering days or times that have gone before us. People in our lives, events, places that have been important to us. This has been the practice stretching back for a couple of hundred years now.

The Scots celebrated a new year with the song and spread this custom into England, then further on into America and around the world. It became a true New Year's Eve staple when in 1929 band leader Guy Lombardo began to use it in his radio and later his television broadcasts as his signature song to ring in the new year.

In modern times we take the song to be a last look back at what has happened in our lives and in our world over the past year, and then look forward to a new start in a new year.