As I was finding myself nearly through February I felt something was missing. I was not quite sure what until I realized I had not made any resolutions for the new year, a practice I had long followed.
Every year I write down my goals for the new year, put them in an envelope that will not be opened until the end of the old year when I evaluate how I did. This year I had not written down my resolutions. Why? Because I seldom remembered them and if I did, discovered how soon I broke most.
I've always appreciated practical philosopher Ben Franklin's guidance for any new year: "Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man." One might argue the same rule should apply to our nation these days.
The truth is that most of us barely remember the last few hours. We live in the moment, the past a blur and the future unknown. Perhaps this is the only way to survive, but it is a selective memory limiting our full human potential.
Viktor Frankl, a philosopher and psychologist and Holocaust survivor, offered a different way to view your life in his book "Man's Search for Meaning."
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life -- daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it asks."
This year I began with a different question, what is life asking of me? Here is my answer: Live and think simply, love more, tell the truth..If ethics is learning how best to live for oneself and others, I am a slow learner. I grow only when confronting myself honestly.
If ethics is practical philosophy, then the way to live a deeper, better life is to put into practice the lessons life has given. The task is creating and keeping daily habits that over time reinforce simplicity, love and truthfulness.
So how do I maintain a daily practice that helps me stay on course? A warning -- it won't be easy. The obvious and sometimes subtle truths around us say that life is difficult, hate is powerful, and lies are everywhere.
The first rule I adopt is simple: Stay awake! If you realized how many influencers hoped you were sleeping in order to win your vote or money you would grasp the vital importance of this rule.
A second rule follows from the first: Train your mind every day by learning good habits. Pause before taking action. It's called impulse control.
The third and final rule is to begin and end each day with a simple mantra to remind you of promises made and kept or lost. Mine is live simply, love more, be truthful.
If you want to keep control of your own life you need to come up with your own mantra. If one of the great minds of the past century, Alfred North Whitehead, could come up with a simple but profound statement -- love more, hate less -- so can you.
One guide I often consulted for how best to live was the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, as a reminder that leaders might still be ethical. Nearing the concluding trials of that empire, he made this resolution: "Never value anything as profitable to thyself which compel thee to break thy promises, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains."
Practice may not make you perfect, but it will enable you to lead a deeper and more fulfilling life. Isn't this worth your commitment?