Originally published at The Catholic Thing
A new year is a time of optimism and hope, a time for a fresh start. For many people, the beginning of a new year is a time for making resolutions. Usually, these are resolutions of self-improvement, even self-denial. We resolve to eat better, exercise more, shed a few pounds, spend more time with family, finally clear out the inbox, travel more, and the like.
These resolutions, of course, invariably stem from an awareness that something about how we have been living is not quite right. The hope in making New Year’s resolutions is that something in one’s life – something lacking or in excess, something out of place or out of order – might be corrected or at least improved.
No one makes a New Year’s resolution to change nothing in the hope that things will thereby improve. Everyone who hopes to improve himself in some way knows that hope and complacency, if not exactly opposites, are incompatible.
If our goal, the object of our hope, is unrealistic, we are setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment. Our hope, if it is to remain true hope, needs to be well founded. If I, a 40-something Dad, want to establish
