It’s nearly the end of January, this first month of 2015. I hope we haven’t completely put aside those New Year’s resolutions we cast for ourselves less than 30 days ago. Even if you didn’t make an official ‘resolution’ for the coming year, I hope you made some thoughtful intentions or at the least had some ideas about what you’d like to accomplish in 2015. If you proposed for yourself to become more physically fit or to eat better, I want to take this moment to remind you (and myself) that today is the day we choose to stay the course. Never mind that yesterday had some failings or shortcomings…it is finished…it is over…it cannot be re-written. But today? Today abounds with possibilities; it is a NEW DAY! Embrace the clean slate with enthusiasm and get ready to put forth some effort (mental, social, physical, spiritual) into your intentions so you can accomplish a positive step forward toward your desired goal. If we were to approach our big resolutions with the little work of taking baby steps every day, we could look back on our yesterdays with satisfaction and accomplishment rather than disappointment. In her book, The Happiness Project, Gretchin Rubin reminds her readers that, “Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability, because it turns out, that the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice.”

I am an artist at living, and my work of art is my life. Japanese philosopher Suzuki