Do-overs and second chances.  New beginnings and a fresh start.  Here we are.  It’s that special time of the year when we sit down for a self-examination and reflect on our experiences from the previous year. When we swing open our closet doors and rather than shoulder-shove everything back in and save the mess for Spring cleaning, this is when we customarily remove those things that we no longer use or need and throw them away.  It is also a time when we consider the general status of our relationships and decide whether or not that area of our lives could stand to be purged as well.  As we recognize that some relationships, like sour milk, had expired and started to smell long ago, but during those hectic days throughout the year that are often consumed with unforeseen fire drills, we never seem to have gotten around to extinguishing them.   Oh, yes.  As the clock strikes midnight on December 31st and slams the book on the previous year, we applaud and cheer as a new book opens.  We become emboldened by the idea of re-writing our stories as we prepare ourselves for the next task of resolving to forge a new path in the new year.  We create ironclad resolutions that we – fingers crossed – won’t retreat from when challenges arise and distract us from our new dreams and goals.  This is usually the first, of many, mistakes and missteps that we make literally right out of the gate. However, we know that the truth is not often found in the grand aspirations that are written on a napkin at 12:01 am on January 1st.  Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we know that absent an actual plan, our resolutions most often become nothing more than a dubious and self-imposed charade.  Ambitious goals that are easily abandoned when the fruits of our labor yield anything and everything except the fruit and lack the instant success and gratification that we need in order to make our efforts worthwhile.   And yet, when whittled down we can see that like most things, our high hopes and goals, lofty or otherwise, are no different than anything else. When we do not see the results that we had expected in very short order, we quickly throw in the towel not because we didn’t start with good intentions, rather we quit because of a general lack of commitment.   Over time and once the excitement of momentum fades, inevitably we lose our appetite to sever the longstanding and well-established relationship that we have with our comfort zone. Now.  All of that is probably true when you are coming off of an uneventful year with your version of normalcy still somewhat intact.  But we are not talking about coming off of a normal, uneventful year, are we?  We are talking about the year 2020, the year that put us all through the same test allowing no one permission to sit and watch from the sidelines.  We all experienced a consequential year filled with uncertainty.  The health of ourselves and our loved ones along with financial and political instability were among the overarching concerns for many and still are today.  And then, as if 2020 wasn’t more than enough on its own, 2021, wasting no time and without hesitation, came in like a gangbuster with its fists flying clearly looking to continue the devastating work of its predecessor.  It is as though at some pivotal point unbeknownst to the rest of us, the annual playbook changed hands while we were all busy writing out our optimistic resolutions on the napkin.  But it does beg the question that is not easily answered or even understood for that matter, and that is how much responsibility are we willing to accept for the challenges that we face in any given year regardless of extenuating circumstances?  We are reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “A productive and happy life is not something you find; it is something you make.”  If that’s true, then it is curious how those carefully crafted New Year’s resolutions, that were allegedly created under the guise of perceived happiness, can be so easily abandoned.  When we look around until our eyes land on someone or something to blame as we quickly detach ourselves from the resolutions that, if we are being honest, we weren’t really very attached to in the first place and quickly warm up to the idea of finding a new dream that maybe doesn’t require so much work.  And over time, ambivalence and a lack of disciplined commitment become the equivalent of stepping on a banana peel at the top of a slippery slope.   As we begin a precarious downward spiral putting further distance and empty space between us and our dreams.  It doesn’t happen overnight, but over time and with each new year disappointment compounds and struggles to keep pace with those resolutions that were never really meant to be fulfilled. Dr. King is quoted as having said, “There is no deficit in human resources; the deficit is in human will.”  And that is an undeniable fact.  ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ is not just something fun to say for the purpose of feigned motivation.  It’s true and aborted New Year’s resolutions make that case plausible every year.  So then why do we do it?  If it is an annual exercise that is really viewed as being possibly more unpredictable than playing the Lottery, why bother with it at all?  Save the napkin and a tree.  Because the truth is when there is no will or motivation attached to attaining a dream or goal, then there is no way forward.  And when we refuse to hold ourselves accountable, the gravitational pull towards the bottom of the slope increases exponentially.    Because a general lack of accountability is the unspoken weakness that plagues so many of us, during our southern trek down the slippery slope …