Poetry at Work: A TweetSpeak New Year’s Resolution

I can truthfully say that I’ve never made an official “New year’s resolution.” From time to time, I have decided to do something or change something, or set a goal. But I’ve never started a new year with a resolution, or a set of resolutions, that would (in theory) guide and direct me for the coming year, or at least for two or three weeks until I break them.

Of course, never having a resolution also means never failing at one, either.

According to Stephen Kraus in Psychological Foundations of Success, about 40 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year. One study by the University of Bristol in 2007 suggested that about 88 percent of all New Year’s resolutions fail.

But some resolutions succeed. And I want to focus on a particular kind of resolution, one that’s not made at the beginning of the year but the kind that come from commitment and determination. The kind that created TweetSpeak Poetry, for example.

 To continue reading, please see my post today at TweetSpeak Poetry.

Photograph by Anna Langova via Public Domain Pictures, used with permission.

Intentions

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. I’m not sure why; I don’t mind other people doing them but for some reason I’ve never gotten into the idea. I set goals, but not generally at this time of the year. It may be that my sense of time over the years has become more circular than linear. Or maybe not.

But I do have some intentions.

To be a better husband.

To enjoy and totally spoil the first grandbaby.

To see my youngest graduate from college.

To write more poetry.

To read more poetry.

To read more poetry aloud to my wife.

To write more. And do something with what’s sitting there finished on the computer.

To do more of these: encourage, honor, respect.

To pray more, and pray first.