Wright words for the new year!

Wright Words: Use monkey bars to craft 2013 New Year’s resolutions

Ready or not, here comes 2013.

Are you ready to bid farewell to 2012? Are you ready for New Year’s resolutions? Are you ready to self evaluate the year that’s passed?

Are you ready to climb back on the monkey bars?

I hate to brag, but I absolutely dominated the monkey bars as a kid. It’s no exaggeration that if playground monkey bars had been an Olympic event, I would have stood atop the podium waving wildly at my mother as the national anthem played and Bob Costas got teary eyed.

Obviously, there were gym teachers who suggested I forgo my amateur monkey bar eligibility and turn pro. But for me, the monkey bars were never about money or fame. I climbed for pure sport.

They were simple times when satisfaction was measured one metal bar at a time. My legs swung just far enough off the ground to create a tiny ration of risk, but not so high that a fall would cause serious injury.

When I felt really bold, I’d try lunging ahead and skipping a bar. But that rarely worked out very well for my ego — or my tailbone.

Sounds a lot like the process of setting New Year’s resolutions, doesn’t it?

Even as a youngster I made lists each year of the things I wanted to improve upon. Sometimes the goals were attainable, just a single bar away on the monkey bars. But other times, my eyes were bigger than my reach and the goals weren’t simple — they were simply impossible.

I remember the year as a young man when I set a goal to do one pushup on Jan. 1, and then increase that number for every day of the year. The plan was that by December I’d be doing more than 300 pushups a day, without stopping, right until Dec. 31. On the final day of the year I was set to do 365, leap to my feet and pound my chest.

I made it to Jan. 12.

Believe it or not there were years I was so skinny I could hide behind a salted pretzel stick. So, naturally, I set goals to add mass and gain weight. Then, when I got older – whoops! – I had to make goals to lose it.

Many times I’ve set goals to give up soda, and once I even made a resolution to invent my own.

I failed at both.

By the time I arrived at college, my New Year's resolution tradition went digital. I created pie charts and graphs monitoring my progress throughout the year on a range of personal improvement areas. But all too often I didn’t meet the majority of those benchmarks and I beat myself up for the failures.

Once, before I was married, I made one of my roommates late for a New Year's Eve party because I was in my room frantically putting the finishing touches on my top 10 list of resolutions for that upcoming year.

One was to be a better roommate.

As I’ve become older and more experienced at the lessons and blessings of both success and failure, I’ve learned to shorten and simplify those lists. I’ve discovered tremendous joy in New Year's resolutions that are just one reach away on the monkey bars.

Each successful reach and grip of the next bar gives me momentum and pulls me forward.

Lose a few pounds. Run a bit longer. Be a better friend. Write just a little more often in my journal.

Pray more. Serve more. Love more.

Of course, I've also learned that even the easiest goals can slip from my grasp and I tumble to the ground. But, thankfully, I usually land on my feet and there’s always a friend either on earth or in heaven ready to spot me and give a boost back up to the bars.

2012 has been a challenging year for me and it feels like I’ve slipped from the bars more often than not. I’m grateful for family and friends who’ve lifted me back up into the air as I regripped each and every day.

This week, millions of us will set new goals for the year ahead. May we remember the satisfaction that comes from taking one bar at a time, relying on momentum and our spotters around us, and setting reasonable goals that get us from one side of the year to the next.

Cue the national anthem. I’m back on the monkey bars.

 You can read more of Jason't Wright Words here:

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”

Albert Einstein I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”  Jimmy Dean “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.”  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If we could turn back the clocks!

Read this incredible article about Regrets and Resolutions, really made me stop and think. Great lesson to remember in my life and I would imagine...everyone's life!

Here is just parts of it...enjoy!

"When we are young, it seems that we will live forever. We think there is a limitless supply of sunrises waiting just beyond the horizon, and the future looks to us like an unbroken road stretching endlessly before us.

However, the older we get, the more we tend to look back and marvel at how short that road really is. We wonder how the years could have passed so quickly. And we begin to think about the choices we made and the things we have done. In the process, we remember many sweet moments that give warmth to our souls and joy to our hearts. But we also remember the regrets—the things we wish we could go back and change.

A nurse who cares for the terminally ill says that she has often asked a simple question of her patients as they prepared to depart this life.

“Do you have any regrets?” she would ask.²

Being so close to that final day of mortality often gives clarity to thought and provides insight and perspective. So when these people were asked about their regrets, they opened their hearts. They reflected about what they would change if only they could turn back the clock.

I Wish I Had Spent More Time with the People I Love

Perhaps the most universal regret dying patients expressed was that they wished they had spent more time with the people they love.

Men in particular sang this universal lament: they “deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the [daily] treadmill of … work.”³ Many had lost out on choice memories that come from spending time with family and friends. They missed developing a deep connection with those who meant the most to them.

I Wish I Had Lived Up to My Potential

Another regret people expressed was that they failed to become the person they felt they could and should have been. When they looked back on their lives, they realized that they never lived up to their potential, that too many songs remained unsung.

I am not speaking here of climbing the ladder of success in our various professions. That ladder, no matter how lofty it may appear on this earth, barely amounts to a single step in the great eternal journey awaiting us.

Rather, I am speaking of becoming the person God, our Heavenly Father, intended us to be.

I Wish I Had Let Myself Be Happier

Another regret of those who knew they were dying may be somewhat surprising. They wished they had let themselves be happier.

So often we get caught up in the illusion that there is something just beyond our reach that would bring us happiness: a better family situation, a better financial situation, or the end of a challenging trial.

The older we get, the more we look back and realize that external circumstances don’t really matter or determine our happiness.

We do matter. We determine our happiness.

You and I are ultimately in charge of our own happiness.

Of Resolutions

One day we will take that unavoidable step and cross from this mortal sphere into the next estate. One day we will look back at our lives and wonder if we could have been better, made better decisions, or used our time more wisely.

To avoid some of the deepest regrets of life, it would be wise to make some resolutions today. Therefore, let us:

• • Resolve to spend more time with those we love.
• • Resolve to strive more earnestly to become the person God wants us to be.
• • Resolve to find happiness, regardless of our circumstances."

You can read the whole article Here:
Good night dear friends!