Tool For Tuesday: Toss Out the New Year’s Resolution.

Toss out that New Year’s Resolution. Start with today. What can we do for ourselves today?

There are 525,600 minutes in the coming year. As my friend, John Chancellor, points out on his blog, we can set aside 10 minutes each morning—just 10 minutes—to focus on our day and what we want to accomplish.

We can’t change the whole world in 10 minutes, but we can focus on altering one small behavior that does change our world.

Things we can do each day:

We can get stronger, more centered, quieter.

We don’t have to explain our decisions or defend ourselves if someone doesn’t like what we decide. Above all, we don’t have to complain. Complaining means sitting in that boat of misery and finding someone to share the “aint it awful” stories. We can find someone who will help us focus on what we can do to make things better.

Each day, we can accomplish the 4 Fundamentals: Taking care of ourselves emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually.

We can be content with the smaller, less glittery prizes in life. (Because those are the things that endure.)

We can keep gratitude in our attitude for what we have and what we had until we lost it. And we can remember that love never dies; it’s just transformed.

Happy and healthy 2014.

Oh, speaking of happy, I got a great review on amazon about The Mom Who Took Off On Her Motorcycle:

“Diana Bletter has written a masterpiece !! Ok I am a 46 year old guy who has ridden Motorcycles all of my life, I have had my own adventures in the Yukon… So why couldn’t I put this book down ? Diana has a story within an adventure, and as I read it I felt as though I was part of the journey !! It was certainly not what I expected when I purchased the book… but it turned out to be so much more !! –Brian Drake

So, if you haven’t had a chance to leave a customer review on amazon, please do so! Just click on “Create Your Own Review” under the book title. It means a lot to me and helps so much with book placement. I thank you in advance!

How do we live our best chapter? As Martha Washington said, “I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”

Resolution Week: My New Year’s Resolution Is To Stop Giving My Kid Weird Body Issues (mommyish.com)
Share a Post from Your Blog on your 2014 New Year’s Resolutions!!! (nicolesloansbooks.wordpress.com)

About dianabletter

Diana Bletter is the author of several books, including The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (with photographs by Lori Grinker), shortlisted for a National Jewish Book Award. Her novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins) was published in 2015. She is the First Prize Winner of Moment Magazine's 2019 Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, tabletmag, Glamour, The Forward, The North American Review, Times of Israel, and is a reporter for Israel21C, and many other publications. She is author of Big Up Yourself: It's About Time You Like Being You and The Mom Who Took off On Her Motorcycle, a memoir of her 10,000-mile motorcycle trip to Alaska and back to New York. She lives in a small beach village in Western Galilee, Israel, with her husband and family. She is a member of the local hevra kadisha, the burial circle, and a Muslim-Jewish-Christian-Druze women's group in the nearby town of Akko. And, she likes snowboarding and climbing trees.

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9 Responses to Tool For Tuesday: Toss Out the New Year’s Resolution.

John Chancellor says:

December 31, 2013 at 12:53 pm

Diana, I love your “we can’t change the world in 10 minutes but we can change our own world. That is the only world we have control over. Thanks for being such a friend and inspiration throughout the year and a very Happy and Prosperous New Year to you and your family.

- dianabletter says:
  
  January 1, 2014 at 2:46 am
  
  Thanks, John. You got that right, our inner world is the only world we have control over. We’re powerless over everything else. Happy new year with good health!
  
juliabarrett says:

December 31, 2013 at 1:47 pm

I just sort of look at every day as an opportunity for reflection. Yom Kippur is a continual New Year for me. Therefore no resolutions. 🙂

- dianabletter says:
  
  January 1, 2014 at 2:45 am
  
  Sounds good to me, Julia! I hope you’re not fasting each day like on Yom Kippur, however! Happy new year, resolution-free!
  
  - juliabarrett says:
    
    January 1, 2014 at 3:53 pm
    
    Nope! No fasting, just reflection! 🙂
Marylin Warner says:

December 31, 2013 at 8:44 pm

10 minutes each morning is workable, a good way to focus on the needs and opportunities of the new day. Certainly beats the list of resolutions I made may years ago.

- dianabletter says:
  
  January 1, 2014 at 2:44 am
  
  Hey Marylin, I hope we can stick with that 10-Minute plan! Happy new year!
  
Tracy Campbell says:

January 2, 2014 at 12:20 am

Diana, great advice and great review on your book.
Happy New Year. 🙂

- dianabletter says:
  
  January 2, 2014 at 4:20 am
  
  Thanks, Tracy. Happy & healthy new year to you!