My Resolution

This year I am going to be the healthiest, smartest, most responsible, productive, professional, wisest, kindest, friendliest, happiest version of me ever. I will achieve everything that I set out to and I will baffle even myself with the results that I produce.
(Take a break to enjoy a hearty chuckle before you continue reading)
That was the thought that was racing through my mind this morning as I looked at my calendar and saw that the last two digits on today's date we no longer 07 but 08. There is something about the changing of those digits, something about it being a new year, something about the freshness of buying a new calendar to hang on my wall (who am I kidding, that is so 1997) that just gives me a sense of endless possibility. Over the next week I am sure that there will be a lot of really great things that I will "get back on track" with and some new things that will "really change the entire way I approach my day." I will probably be at the gym tomorrow morning with my ipod blasting the lastest Kanye West song as I look in the mirrors and admire the progress that I am seeing from the past twenty minutes of my workout. I will probably start saving a little bit more from each of my paychecks and of course those checks will be bigger than ever because, you guessed it, it is a new year. And if I was going to bet on myself, I would take the odds that sometime in the next two weeks I will be at the driving range hitting a bucket of balls and thinking to myself, "Why don't I do this more often? I am on the brink of being great!" Because, since it is the new year, I am probably going to drop at least 8, if not 10, strokes off my golf game this year.
So, in about six months, what are the chances that I will be the most buff, most financially sound, scratch golfer that you all have met in recent years? Not to good. Why not? I really want all those things, they are all great things to aspire to. Each of them are well within my capacity. I don't have any type of restrictions or limitations placed on me that would keep me from pursuing those goals, right?
The reason that I, and millions of others, will not stick to or follow through on all of the lofty aspirations and good intentioned commitments that will be made in the coming days comes all the way back to the core question that we all face: What are you willing to sacrifice?
"The pain of living a life of mediocrity is far less than the pain ones endures to rise above."
"It is discipline, not desire, that changes things."
"The pain of discipline today or the pain of regret tomorrow, you choose."
So I am not going to make a list of resolutions this year. I am not going to spend the next couple of hours putting together a workout plan in Excel. I am not going to make lofty claims that will inevitably lead to lofty attempts that will last a couple of weeks at best.
But what I am going to do is think big picture and think end game. I am going to "run with endurance the race that is set before me." I am going to realize that each new day brings me a brand new set of 86,400 seconds that I can use any way I choose to get me that much closer to my personal legend. I am going to live my life with the resolution that "it is the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."