“The older that I get, the quicker the time seems to go. Inside, I still feel like a kid, but I will be 58 years old in the New Year 2014. I have always felt that life is a gift – to be enjoyed – to have fun. So I am going to have fun in 2014, and try to help my friends, family and community to also have fun. My passion in life is art and music. I love to bring people together at my music and art club the Falcon and help create a magical experience for all of us. My New Year’s resolution for 2014 is to build a place where young people can express themselves artistically: a place where we don’t sit around bored – a place where we have fun, make art and music together with a bunch of colorful paints, some musical instruments and a beautiful waterfall.”
– Tony Falco, the Falcon, www.liveatthefalcon.com
“To the kiddies: Take more photos and carefully label them so someone in 2064 will know what they are looking at. To the adults: Since I will turn 70 in 2014, my main resolution is to see 2044. You can’t hit what you don’t aim for! I will work harder to help more people see the excitement, romance and power of our local history and its place in our national history. I will offer to educate my fellow citizens on the US Constitution, because I believe adherence to that document is the only way to bring back personal freedom, and with that, prosperity. I will publish a book of my favorite About Town stories from the past 30 years. I will sell or donate some of my collections. I will label my photos!”
– Vivian Wadlin, About Town Community Guides, https://abouttown.us
“My resolutions this year are: 1) to be more dedicated and regular with my karate training, as I am working toward my third-degree black belt; 2) to learn more about gluten-free cooking; 3) to explore the small businesses in the area to find hidden treasures I never knew about before.”
– Bonny Algozzine, blogger at https://crazycelebrations.blogspot.com
“I resolve to be gracious and happy to be a part of the New Paltz retail community!”
– Ellie Brunning, No. 5 Thrift Boutique, (845) 988-7227
“My resolution this year is the same as every year: to simply do the best I can in everything I do.”
– Lou Trapani, the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck, https://centerforperformingarts.org
“You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy.”
– C. Joybell C.
How to make New Year’s resolutions that you can keep
Terry Laughlin, founder of Total Immersion Swimming in New Paltz, shares some terrific points in his “Resolution Recipe” for successfully adopting a new resolution in his blog, www.swimwellblog.com:
“Small is beautiful. The keystone of the [Total Immersion] Method is Kaizen, the philosophy of Continuous Improvement. Kaizen is rooted in the Taoist proverb: ‘The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.’ Kaizen is explicitly about incremental change – often so subtle you can’t sense it, yet never doubt it – pursued daily…Make modest resolutions, and renew them throughout the year, rather than set ambitious goals now.
“Focus on process. In the simplest of swimming terms, it means stop focusing on getting to the other end and focus instead on being conscious of each stroke along the way.
“Embrace the imperfect. Don’t wait for any particular condition to be fulfilled or to feel strongly motivated. Emotional states, like motivation, are too often transitory. And the supposition that you require motivation undermines action. The belief that you need to feel motivated, or need the perfect situation, before taking action is the biggest barrier to actually getting things done.
“Be happier today. I ride a bike for every feasible errand between April and November, neither to be green, nor to be fit. I do it because it makes me feel 15 again (I’m 61) and because, on a bike, I can feel a breeze on my face, smell the flowers and hear birdsong – none of which happens in a car. My swimming motivation is essentially the same. While I do swim in meets and open water races – and am a very competitive person at heart – and I hope to be mobile, agile and graceful at 85 – my main reason for swimming is I feel fantastic, physically and mentally, during and after.”
Erica Chase-Salerno resolves to finish Kids’ Almanac before 2 a.m. on the day that it’s due every week. She and her husband Mike live in New Paltz with their two children: the inspirations behind www.hudsonvalleyparents.com. She can be reached at [email protected].
