You may be reading this thinking that you are in fact the epitome of normalcy… everyone should persevere to be more like you and things would be better right? I’m not even going to say you’re wrong because you may in fact be right. But, what I do have to say is that while I don’t think I’m any worse than anyone else, I am most definitely not normal in the sense of the world’s definition of normal today.

Number one, I believe that Christianity deserves a more prominent role in our society… Let me restate that… I believe the role of Christianity in the United States should be returned to its rightful place our forefathers intended for it to be. Our current society and governmental policy has desecrated the spiritual relationship our country was built upon in an effort to satisfy the liberal elitists and minority segments of society with unending rivers of cash.

Number two, I believe that the people should run our country, not the government running the people. Our government is not working for the people at this stage of our country’s existence… it is feeding upon the power that it has been given in an effort to rule our people thinking that it can make better decisions for us than we can for ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I can make my own decisions without some politician telling me what to do and how to live.

Number three, I don’t believe in being politically correct. We can be congenial and friendly without having to succumb to the mind numbing actions being politically correct involve. If we can’t coexist amongst one another without offending each other, maybe we should have classes on being tactful and respectful rather than being force-fed something that only covers up people’s true feelings. Being politically correct doesn’t solve anything, it simply sugar coats the situation and makes for very fake conversations and relationships.

Number four, I don’t think the government is here to solve all of our problems. I believe the American citizen owns the power to change our world. We can’t rely upon or depend upon government handouts, stimulus packages, or interventions to solve our issues. Do you still have your mom and dad bail you out of trouble when you have issues? Does your dad come and change your tire if it’s flat? Does your mom still do your laundry and make you supper? We need to outgrow our dependence on government and relearn how to govern ourselves.

And finally number five, I believe every single person in our country, male and female, should be required to complete a full year of military service before turning 18. No, I’m not talking about joining the National Guard or Army… I’m talking about a year long (not school year, a full 365 days) course providing every young person a sample of discipline, structure, and military training that will lay the foundation for a strong young mind preparing to enter adulthood and the real world.

Do you think this sounds very normal in today’s society of religious decline, government handouts, and decreasing military recruitment? Our society is all about getting things because of some sense of entitlement. Where did the concept of earning what you deserve go? We have been trained to rely upon our government for sustenance and we have allowed our spirituality be gutted simply because an elite few has decided they don’t agree. We don’t respect our military the way we should and we do things right only if we are recognized and rewarded in some manner. I’m glad that I’m not normal in the eyes of our world. If I were called normal by the “normal” people of this world, I would be ashamed of myself.

Yes, it’s habit to focus on the large situations in our lives, I can attest to that basic fact of life as I’m sure you can too. But, as I sit here, I can name countless little things that were said or done throughout my life that created a major impact in how I think and react. Whether it affected how I trust someone to how much respect I give a person… Whether I feel that someone is a liar or a true friend… The situations are countless, but the vast majority of what I remember would not be considered earth shattering events.

Maybe it’s because I discount the major instances for the most part and focus on the little things that slip through. To me, the telltale signs of who people are come through in the simplest conversation or reaction in ordinary situations. These signs can display more about a person than weeks, months, or even years of conversation or friendship. Sometimes, who people truly are comes out when they are the most “comfortable.”

How about you? Do you let the real you slip out in while you’re not looking? Does your true personality squeeze out through the armor you have slipped into? As I’ve said before, most of us are walking around with different “faces” on and for the most part, we don’t let many people see the real us. We like to control that aspect of our life even more than our bank account it seems.

But, when that instance comes along and the real you comes out, what kind of trickle down effects do you have on the other people in your life? For me, the trickle down instances I have experienced in my life generally center on people who failed to conceal their “wicked” person. Why do you think that is? Well, basic common sense to me says that people who aren’t really the nice person they seem to be, allow these “slips” to happen because they are in fact, concealing who they really are. People who aren’t worried about hiding their true self, are legitimate people and usually don’t fall into these types of traps… they are who they are all the time.

Yes, everything we do carries an impact on others. The trickle down effects of our actions and words can help and even damage others. However, if we focus upon being our true selves in all situations, the effects will be nearly all positive whether mistakes were made or not. Genuine people are expected to make mistakes… non-genuine people who make mistakes can lose trust, respect, and their dignity amongst their friends, family, and co-workers.

Going back to my statement that I have tended to focus upon the small things from people and sad to say, most of the time, these small nuances are vastly negative. I have found that most people fear others knowing who they really are. For whatever reason, they just cannot be themselves. But, given enough time, we all figure out who they really are even as they fight tooth and nail to hide it. The little things will always come out no matter how good at hiding…

Go about your day as you really are. Don’t worry about the little things that slip through because there won’t be anything to slip. Your trickle down effects will be positive because genuine people make genuine relationships and friends. These bonds are not broken by mistakes done in an honest manner. But mistakes made by liars concealing who they really are deserve their just punishment when they do display their true nature. Be who you are, it’s the right thing to do… it’s the respectful thing to do… it’s the trustworthy thing to do… your trickle down effects will be positive in the eyes of those you interact with.

Why do we do this? Whether your faith tells you not to judge others or not, we all are judging one another. We can pick the most miniscule aspect out of someone’s life and simply label them a failure because of their abject failing to be perfect in their existence. The majority of us are harsh critics of one another but at the same time, ultimate forgivers when it comes to our own failings. We rationalize away our own problems and mistakes. It must have been the circumstances or bad luck or some other cosmic crossroads that created our own error in judgment or action.

Of course the other people in our world can’t possibly have that sort of leniency. They must be responsible for every last word spoken and action taken. There are no “do overs” and no “reasons” and there are no “mistakes” when it comes to the people we judge in our lives. As I said earlier, I often fall into the trap of judging others… all under the assumption that I must be the perfect example they are judged against. How wrong is that?

Today, for whatever reason, I was thinking about someone who I had judged in my life and I thought to myself, why is that ok when I am no better? No, I didn’t make the same mistakes, but were the mistakes made by that person any worse than mine? We all like to put grades on everything in our lives… it helps us determine priority and importance. But, if I’m not supposed to judge, then how can I place a grade on their mistake? All I can do is take care of myself and work on my own mistakes.

Take a few minutes and look at your last few days. Can you honestly say that you haven’t judged another person in that timeframe? I can’t. While I know that I’m not supposed to judge, I still manage to do it because I’m not perfect. My goal is to limit the times I do while going forward so that eventually, judging others becomes as rare as humanly possible.

The fallout from judging others can damage or even destroy existing relationships. It can keep relationships from ever being formed. The obstacles we create by judging others create an unfair roadblock for others to climb over. Rarely do we judge ourselves so we unconsciously believe ourselves to be perfect… or a shade of perfect… or a rational version of perfection…

Do you think it’s fair if the people in your life judged you and put these obstacles in front of your relationship? You do it, so you can bet they do it also. Maybe that’s why relationships are so hard to keep and nurture these days… People are so judgmental of everyone in their lives that forgiveness rarely enters the equation. We have determined that nobody fits our model of perfection and we have simply determined that no one deserves to be in our innermost trusted circle.

Rather than judge the people you know, and even those you do not, try turning the idea upside down. Apply the standards you have unjustly placed on others to yourself. Place yourself within the constraints of perfection and see how well you stack up. My guess is you will be shocked by your performance if you’re honest… we aren’t perfect and never will be. Why should we apply an unachievable standard to those around us if we can’t ever achieve the standard? Stop judging and start forgiving, that’s what I plan on doing more of. I don’t want to be judged by others so why should I judge them?

How easy is it to simply focus on the perceived failings of your competitors and do nothing to differentiate yourself other than to run down the scorecard of these failures? It’s very easy. How easy is it to focus on the shortcomings of your co-workers and use them to promote your own self up the ladder? Again, it’s very easy. My personal opinion on the people and businesses using this copout way of “attracting” attention is that they are showing you their true colors, their lack of character depth, and their lack of quality product or ability.

If you have nothing to differentiate yourself other than to constantly run other people down in an effort to make you or your product appear better, do you have anything better to offer in reality? Shouldn’t your product speak for itself? Shouldn’t your work ethic and character makeup speak for your ability? Shouldn’t you focus on what makes you better and not what makes the others worse? The reason why you see more and more people and businesses take this line of product differentiation is because they lack the cognitive ability to promote their own product ethically with integrity. Of course, that is assuming their product is at minimum, equal to their competitors.

You don’t have to be a marketing major or industry analyst to differentiate your product in a manner that is both ethical and positive. But, it does take more effort than constantly running your mouth about the weaknesses of your opposition. Your consumers, and or coworkers, are not oblivious to the real world, no matter how inept you believe them to be. People do not need to be fed their information as if they cannot form a rational opinion on their own. If you believe they need reinforcement in the manner of spouting negatives about your competition, then your product doesn’t have the natural distinction to win their attention on its own.

It’s not as simple as a “build it and they will come” philosophy, but it is as simple that if you build a product that is inherently better than the competitor, you can differentiate yourself in a positive and ethical manner. Simplistic minds and questionable character development allows a fertile ground for these negative differentiators to grow and exist.

I’ve personally seen more and more of this in my life from individuals and businesses. It turns me off from having a relationship with either of them. If they believe that I need a push to choose them over their competitor, they should show me the positives of their product. If all they can focus upon is a negative laundry list of their competitors, it tells me they don’t have a product I want.

People and businesses choose the easy way out in our lives more often than not. They choose not to focus upon creating their own positive image. They are too worried about getting ahead this instant. Their only traction in society is to belittle and publicly damage those who are “in their way.” Do you want to associate with these types of people or businesses? If they are so superficial and lacking in character, how much importance do you think you are to them? Are you nothing more than a contributor to their bottom line as long as you “agree” with their sentiments? Are you nothing more than a friend when you “agree” with their laundry lists?

I choose to deal with people and businesses of real character. For those who lack this capability, I refuse to augment their financial sheets and I refuse to incorporate them into my life. Focus on differentiating yourself in a positive manner. Yes, it takes more effort, but in the end, it makes you stand out above your competitors more than any list of failings they may have. Build some character, be positive, because guess what, you’re only the flavor of the month if all you have to win people over is what’s wrong with everyone else. What’s right with you? My guess is not a whole lot. Have some class and integrity… it goes a long way.

We can develop relationships by consciously looking out for the wants and needs of others we are involved with in our lives. If we focus some of our time and effort in satisfying these wants and needs, we can effectively earn our way into their good graces. Making deposits throughout the course of a relationship can build a nice balance over time just like earning interest on your money. Everything sounds pretty nice and good to this point. Everyone is happy in this situation right? Everyone in the relationship is getting something for their efforts.

Well, I have a completely different view about things… especially when the relationship involves your family, close friends, and your spouse. Initially, I saw this “Love Bank” as a quick fix scheme…. or a relationship “get rich scam.” While I’m sure there are people in relationships where this type of mentality can succeed, at least for the short term, it’s not the answer to building lasting and bonding relationships. Consciously deciding to fulfill the needs of others so that your “account” will grow in their eyes is a blatant form of manipulation.

It’s a simple do this for that mentality. My wife likes French fries so I think I’ll bring her a surprise this weekend… what she doesn’t know is that I am actually building my account up because I’m going to be making a withdrawal from that account by doing something she’s not too keen on me doing. The simple ideology of an account implies that withdrawals are going to be made. Why is that necessary? Are our relationships so superficial and weak that we need to put layers of fake attention on top so we can avoid the most dreaded word in relationships today? That word would be compromise.

Near the end of the discussion, I simply stated that 99.9% of the time, satisfying the needs of my wife occurs unconsciously. Sure, there are times when I plan on certain things to make my wife happy, that’s called being romantic. But, the rest of the time, satisfying her needs just happens. It happens because I live my life by putting her needs first, before mine, every time. It’s how I live… it’s who I am. She is the exact same with me, it just happens. Our relationship is built from putting others first. I want what makes her happy and she wants what makes me happy.

We talked about this on the way home (we are lucky and can talk about everything) and while our life does go through the natural ups and downs all human beings experience, our relationship has always been happy and very strong. Rare is the case where she is not first and foremost on my mind and vice versa. We simply have a relationship built to last because we live for each other. We do not live each day making an effort to deposit money into our Love Banks. Our banks are always full and they never see, or need, a withdrawal.

If conscious efforts are needed to satisfy the needs of the relationships in your life, I can guarantee you that you aren’t living your life by putting others first. Rather than look for a quick fix scheme to cover up the underlying relationship issue, maybe taking a long hard look at the relationship itself is needed. I know everyone doesn’t have a bond like I have with my wife, but I know everyone can have it. All it takes is a decision to live your life unselfishly. I can promise you, you’re life will be happier as a result.

My wife has an issue with my viewpoint. She says I am rationalizing the ugly term of pessimism into an “acceptable” way of living. I am not a pessimist. I do not always assume the worst of everything but I do pay attention to the negatives in nearly all situations and account for their impact. However, along with that, I account for the positives and I make a decision based upon that knowledge. This knowledge, coupled with the experience of the real word, lead me to my realistic point of view.

The problem that comes as a result of living this way is that in reality, most things do have a negative result. Should we expect anything different? Is that a pessimistic or realistic statement? What do you think? To me, that is a realistic statement because of the state our world is currently in. Our spiritual relationships have withered, our morality has withdrawn into the darkness, and our ethical standards have decreased to the point where almost everything is acceptable in our world.

Given these REAL circumstances, the realistic point of view in nearly all situations will result in a true answer… give or take a miracle of humanity here and there. There are times when I hope against hope and am eternally optimistic, but those times are few and far between. Generally, I lay it out the way our world will most likely answer our situations. That is my realistic point of view. It is not pessimism. Pessimism to me is wallowing in self pity and sinking into a world of destructive hopelessness.

I have hope and I enjoy being optimistic. But I am only overly optimistic when the times are right and the situation calls for it. I will admit that having this point of view can lead you into pessimism because while we need to focus on the negatives that can happen, we must not dwell on their existence and occurrence at all times. Being a realist can very easily lead to a person becoming a pessimist.

I don’t think that will happen to me for a couple of reasons. I have a wonderful family life that fills my world with hope every day. I have a spiritual relationship that provides me hope and optimism. I am smart enough to know that good happens just as bad happens. But, people without those attributes in their lives can easily become pessimists with highly negative personalities.

Am I rationalizing or am I just being a realist? What’s your point of view? Are you an eternal optimist or an eternal pessimist? You may ask how I can be a realist and not an eternal optimist if I have a spiritual relationship with God. My answer to that is God did not make this world a perfect place. There are lots of things wrong in our world and we cannot simply be unaware of these bad things in our lives. We can hope that the bad won’t happen, but we must realize that it will happen… a lot.

I wish I could be an eternal optimist, but living a life like that in our world today can only lead to a lifetime of hurt feelings and damaged or crushed dreams. We can hope, but we must hope when hope is warranted. We can hope in all circumstances, but we must realize that sometimes, we are hoping against hope and the likely outcome isn’t going to be what we want. Miracles do happen, so hope is not ever to be given up, but just don’t expect a miracle in every situation, it won’t happen. That’s just being realistic.

No, I’m not only talking about the supervisors or managers of us in our work lives, I am also talking about our own ability to manage ourselves. Our lives, both at work and at home, have simply become overwhelmed by too many multitasking opportunities. We are focused, but unfocused at the same time. We are trying to do too many things at once while accomplishing nothing. We are effectively in a constant state of paralysis. Our attention is being pulled in so many directions, we cannot move forward without pulling something else backwards in our lives.

Our single person isn’t enough to continually push the amount of stuff in our lives forward at once. So, we live a life of unfocused focus. At work, we are responsible for many things because as Americans, we pride ourselves on efficiency and hard work. At home, we over subscribe our time because we have so many irons in the fire. While we focus on one thing, something else is falling behind. We switch our focus to correct that and something else lags. We just cannot catch up. It eventually leads to an overwhelming situation where we feel that no matter what we do, we just cannot keep up, get out, or complete a project.

As we manage ourselves, we must decide what we can do. We must decide how thin to stretch our time, our resources, and our energy. Our managers at work must also do the same. If we are stretched beyond our capabilities, we end up where a lot of us are today… overwhelmed and paralyzed. So, we have meetings to have a meeting in an effort to fix a certain situation. We make a plan to have a plan so that we can push forward something that is dragging behind. We continually have the same conversations over and over again because our focus has been split into a hundred different directions. It seems as if we are reinventing the wheel over and over again.

At some point in time, we should put a stake into the ground and announce that we are pushed as far as we can go. There is a finite amount of energy and time in our everyday lives. We must recognize that as an individual and our supervisors must also realize that. If our lives are allowed to continue down this path, a breaking point will be discovered and over time, everything will come crashing down. Rather than living in a state of paralysis, we will enter a situation of freefalling disaster. The pressures of everything around us that we were capable of holding at bay will crush us and we will not be able to reverse the momentum.

We need to regain our focus and whittle down the amount of things we are undertaking in our lives. We should focus our efforts on returning to a more minimal state of living and recover some of our time at home. Our managers at work must realize that a “Jack of all trades” is not better than an expert… or king of the trade. We can still be efficient and not be responsible for umpteen different tasks at once. Focused worker attention is more efficient and also more productive. Focused home life allows for a more stable household and creates better relationships.

But, this is America… we are the “go go” society. We want to be number one and the price we pay to be number one may just not be worth it. If we sacrifice ourselves and our identity to achieve so-called prosperity aren’t we really the losers?

My wife and I were having a conversation today and I had sort of an epiphany about myself. In my late teens and early 20’s, I realized that all I cared about was my own self. I wanted to be the smartest. I wanted to be the best. I wanted everyone to know and to see that. I actively searched for situations where I could grow my pride and my associated ego. I succeeded at my search and I felt pretty good about myself. My self-serving needs were being met and my pride and ego were about as massive as I can ever remember. I was insanely proud of myself.

However, sometime in my mid to late 20’s, I realized that my selfish needs were simple and short lived. I realized that life is better served by caring for other people and putting their needs ahead of mine. At this point in my life, I began to actively search for someone I could spend the rest of my life with. I was ready for commitment. I was ready to grow up. After serving myself for so many years, I now understood that to truly fill your being with an unending supply of personal nutrients for growth, you needed to focus upon those you care about in your life rather than your own existence.

I was lucky enough to find my wonderful wife around this time in my life… my selfish mentality had changed and I was ready for her to enter my life. The 9+ years since have been continually getting better.

As I look back, I know that if I had continued down the path of pursuing my individual needs of pride and ego, I would have missed my opportunity to meet my wife. I would have solely focused upon myself and missed the path in my journey that led to true happiness. We are all given a chance in our lives to make the choice between pride and ego or caring for others. Where are you at in your life? In all honesty, are you pursuing your own selfish desires or are you pursuing what will truly make a lasting difference in your life? Relationships and family are the lasting differences in our lives.

Being that we live in America, we are all taught that we can do and be anything. We are at the center of our known universe. Serving and satisfying our own needs has been taught to us as our primary goal from the beginning of human consciousness in our generation. We can make anything happen if we truly want it. I’ve even seen books tell me that if I truly believe in something that is going to happen, the good vibes in the universe will provide me my wish. You may have heard of a bestselling book touting this idea, “The Secret.” I hate to tell you, but that’s simply not true.

These days, I still have the urge for the prideful event and I always feel the twinge of my ego wanting to grow, but I do my best to keep these chains of desire out of my life. I have found that my life is much happier serving the needs of my family than serving the needs of myself. I’m sure many of you know exactly what I’m talking about and I’m sure there are those of you out there that are still in the self serving mode. In the end, we all have to live through our own trials and errors and if you can be honest with yourself, you will realize that pride and ego are actually some of the chains that will continually hold you down and feed depression and unhappiness.

Serving pride and ego are some of the worst things we succumb to doing as human beings. Break the chains and realize that serving the needs of others is where true happiness is found.

I take things seriously, I am a competitive person. If I commit to doing something, I have chosen to enter into a competition with myself at the very basic level. I will continue down the path even if futility is certain. Quitting to me is an abject failure and should be averted at all costs. I believe there is always one last “Hail Mary” in our quiver of life’s arrows. Are you similar to me or is your standard of commitment a variable in an equation that changes by the day, hour, or even minute?

Personally, I know people who fall into each category. I know people who are like me… steadfast in their pursuit of their commitment. I know people who are the complete opposite of me… wishy-washy individuals who throw around the term commitment like yesterday’s worn socks. I know a whole gamut of people in between… that’s where most people are these days. Who is worse, the people who are wishy-washy or the in between commitment makers?

Being that I’m the polar opposite of the wishy-washy person, you may think I believe they are the worst ones… you would be wrong. The fact of the matter is that with the wishy-washy people, you know they will not honor their commitment and if they do, you should view it as a miraculous event… a true bonus in life. The middle of the road commitment makers are the most disturbing group of people to be around. You never know what you’re going to get. Are you going to get the guy who means what he says this time or not? Can you depend on him over the long term or is he just into making commitments for the short term? Or worse yet, is he the person that sometimes shows up and sometimes doesn’t?

Who makes you angrier? At least the wishy-washy commitment maker has his cards on the table and you know what you’re getting. Anger in their direction is your own fault… you shouldn’t have counted on their commitment anyway. Hoping against hope isn’t the answer here, track record is the answer.

I get aggravated, angry, and upset with the middle of the road guys. How can you pick and choose what you are committed to when other people are expecting you to uphold your end of the bargain? Do these people value their time over everyone else’s? What makes them more important than the other people involved in the commitment? I don’t understand the rationale here. If I commit to something, I have undertaken a responsibility and I honor my duty.

Duty, responsibility, and commitment… those are pretty large words in our vapid society today. No longer do the masses respect other people and their sacrifices required to honor their commitments. There’s another large word… respect. We have also thrown around the term honor. Honestly, how often do you see these traits in the world today? I would venture to say that if you have experienced these traits in an individual in your life recently, you probably couldn’t wait to tell the next person in your life about your “awesome” experience. These instances have become increasingly rare, and that’s sad.

Starting right now, think about the commitments in your life, no matter how large or small they may be. If you are not honoring your commitments, think about how your actions are hurting those who have chosen to respect their commitment. You may not be an all in person, all the time, but focus on honoring your commitments and people will respect you.

Lose weight/Get in better shape/Become healthier…

This seems to be the standard resolution for the majority of society for a variety of reasons. I’m right there with you. We can always strive to become healthier in how we eat, exercise, and live our lives. We must set goals that are attainable so that we do not become discouraged… nothing happens overnight. Remember, it took a long time to get into the state we are in and it will take time to reverse it. Focus on small battles on the way to the overall victory. Think about things in terms of weeks and months, not days and never allow a minor setback destroy your resolve or momentum in your journey.

Save money/Get out of debt

Everyone always wants to make that nest egg a little bit bigger. We also want to reduce the stress in our life that debt creates. Managing our money better during the new year is also a very important battle we wage each and every paycheck. Again, we must focus on the small victories in the course of our war on debt and savings. This particular battle may be a multi-year war and thus there are many opportunities to stray off course and allow the pitfalls of the war disintegrate our willpower. We must focus on the small victories and remember that things take time to right the wrongs of the past.

Be nicer or more caring/Volunteer more

As human beings, most of us have the born in need of wanting to help others. Giving our time freely by volunteering and helping others in need is a prime opportunity to satisfy this need. However, we all know how strained our current time allocations are. We can’t arbitrarily state that we will join several volunteer groups in our community or church and believe that we can sustain a drastic change in lifestyle. As with our other resolutions, we must think small first, and move to bigger and better things.

Many resolutions are dead and buried by the 2^nd week of the new year and some may only last into the 2^nd month. Overall, our resolutions are made in good faith because we all want to become the person we envision ourselves to be, but it’s very easy to become discouraged and migrate back to our previous way of life. If we make too many changes, we simply cannot stay on track and our resolutions become nothing more than pipe dreams. Stay small and focused and true change can happen.

With the economy, housing market, and job market in the dire states they are currently in, what kind of new resolutions make sense to make this year?

Work harder/Be more efficient

With jobs becoming scarce, we all need to work harder at the jobs we do have and also become more efficient at them. Society is spending less money and as a result, there is less money in corporate pockets. Production decreases and job slashing will continue to erode the job market. If we can make ourselves more valuable while decreasing overall costs by becoming more efficient, we can help protect our jobs.

Rebuild family/friend relationships

As the overall economy deteriorates, we all need help at some point. That help comes from our family and friends for the most because the government is not our support system. If there are issues that currently are keeping family or friend relationships broken, they should be worked through because these relationships with loved ones can make the difference between a lifestyle of depression versus one with hope. We all need loving relationships in our lives. Repair those that are broken.

Find your faith/Become active in church

America was born upon the Christian philosophy and faith. The vast majority of Americans still consider themselves Christians. However, church attendance is down. Our church family is another relationship we must rebuild and refocus our attention on. If we can come together again and put away our selfish and greedy differences and focus on living our lives through our faith, we can overcome the trials and tribulations the world continually tries to punish us with.

The new year can be a great year. Focus on each day by doing whatever you can to achieve your overall goals. Remember that winning the battles will not be easy and they will take time… some will take years. However, if we truly work on them, we can make a major difference in our lives and also those around us by simply trying to become better people. Our individual attention to ourselves will translate to everyone around us and we can make an immeasurable positive impact on society.