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How to set and keep New Year’s goals · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:24
Happy New Year's Eve, everybody.
0:27
New Year's Day Eve.
0:29
I guess if you're listening live at America Outloud.news on December 31st, Wednesday at 2 p.m.
0:38
It's New Year's Eve.
0:40
And so we say happy New Year's, happy New Year's Eve.
0:45
New Year's Day Eve, I guess, technically.
0:48
It's one of my favorite days of the year, really.
0:51
New Year's Eve.
0:53
It's just and the day of the Eve.
0:56
It's just a good, that's just a good time because mainly it's a time of reflection.
1:04
It's a time to look back on the year, take stock of the year, and decide how did it go?
1:13
And in what areas did you succeed?
1:16
In what areas did you not succeed, and what areas do you need to do better?
1:19
This is just the time to do it.
1:22
It's the time to make lists and to be thoughtful and to be reflective.
1:28
It's a good time.
1:29
I just I love it.
1:30
I'd I love today.
1:33
Aristotle and Nika Machian Ethics.
1:38
Aristotle talks about, I don't know, I think it's book book three or book four.
1:44
He talks about the contemplative life.
1:51
And that this is the life which truly brings happiness when we're contemplative, when we when we contemplate.
1:59
And well, what are we contemplating?
2:01
I guess that's up to you, but when we're contemplating in our lives, when we're contemplating where we're going versus where we've been.
2:28
Did they achieve those goals?
2:30
This is contemplative.
2:32
This is somebody who is who is interested in making their life of something, fulfilling something, fulfilling some purpose.
2:45
And it's true that all of us have a purpose.
2:50
We all have something to strive for.
2:54
We all, well, there's there's a reason for our existence.
2:59
We were created equal.
3:04
Dwight D.
3:05
Eisenhower in his 1956 Christmas Address said that we were all identical in our aspirations.
3:16
Aspions for a peaceful, a decent and a rewarding life.
3:22
His rewording of Jefferson's statement that we're created equal.
3:27
And we're created equal with this desire to achieve something.
3:34
This desire to truly go after a thing.
3:38
And to go after it with purpose, go after it with intention.
3:44
And uh and now is a time to take stock of were we successful in achieving things that we wanted to achieve.
3:55
Now listen, if you've not, if you've not set goals for yourself, now is the time to be thinking about it.
4:02
We don't really talk about resolutions.
4:05
Resolutions fade away, resolutions die out, resolutions don't last.
4:11
Goals are different.
4:13
Goals are different from resolutions, at least in my own definition.
4:19
A goal is something that you're striving to achieve.
4:24
A resolution is something you want to change, and that's fine.
4:27
I mean, you can you can definitely change things and and and get better at things, and um, you know, those those things are fine.
4:38
But goals are different.
4:40
Goals are um you're striving for something.
4:45
Now, I guess a goal could be you want to change a particular aspect of yourself, but ultimately you're striving for something, you want to achieve a thing.
4:57
And so if you've not set goals, now's the time to do it.
5:02
Just stop for a minute, get out of get out a piece of paper, put me on pause.
5:08
Of course, if you're listening live, you can't, but if you're not listening, if you're listening on podcasts, put me on pause and start making a list.
5:16
Start thinking through some things.
5:18
I went over um my daughter Elizabeth sent this to me.
5:24
A list of things that now is is a good time to be thinking through.
5:30
And the here's what the list looks like.
5:34
Number one, what did you do well this year?
5:37
Write it down.
5:38
What did you do well?
5:40
Think through it.
5:41
What areas of your life were you most successful at throughout the year?
5:47
Kind of the same as, you know, what did you do well?
5:49
What did you achieve?
5:50
What were you the most successful at?
5:53
Okay, that's number one.
5:55
Number two, what did you fail at?
5:59
What are some of the areas of your life where you uh where you could have done better, where you where you could see and experience some improvement.
6:09
And this is where we have to be honest with ourselves, and none of us probably want to be honest here.
6:15
We'd rather say, Yeah, we nailed everything.
6:18
I was a success at everything.
6:21
Uh, well, that'd be a lie.
6:23
You'd be lying to yourself if you said you were a success at everything, because chances are you weren't.
6:29
Okay, number three.
6:31
What makes you jealous of other people when you see it?
6:35
A nice car, maybe, a career they love, maybe, or a relationship that they're in, maybe.
6:40
What makes you jealous?
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Because chances are these are things that you want to achieve yourself.
6:50
And it's important to make note of this instead of harboring the jealousy instead of getting into this holding pattern of constantly being jealous.
7:03
Think about that thing, and then maybe establish it as a as a goal for yourself.
7:12
Maybe maybe instead of being jealous of the person of your neighbor who drives a corvette, maybe make that a goal for yourself.
7:19
And then just you know, think through it.
7:22
How could I uh how could I get my hands on a on a Corvette?
7:27
How could I come up with enough money this year to buy a Corvette?
7:31
I don't know, whatever.
7:33
And this is the time of the year to do it.
7:36
Take stock.
7:37
If you have not taken stock yet, I encourage you.
7:41
Now is the time to take stock.
7:44
Speaking of taking stock and keeping stock.
7:48
I'm looking at this article here from classical wisdom.
7:53
This is one of my uh one of my favorite substacks to follow on Substack.
7:59
I've got a handful that I really enjoy.
8:02
And this one from Classical Wisdom.
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These guys are these guys are some of my favorite.
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If you're not following classical wisdom on Substack, I think you should be.
9:13
Whatever comes, you know, what come what may.
9:18
That's not the attitude here.
9:21
The attitude's very driven.
9:23
Let's let's set a goal.
9:25
And at the end of the year, let's let's reflect.
9:29
And let's just not reflect on the goal, but let's reflect on our own misgivings.
9:36
And let's put in place a plan to improve our behavior or improve our outlook on life.
9:43
You know, your outlook on life can really have a play a big role in in how you behave.
9:51
Some goals were fairly easy to achieve, such as being kinder to one's friends.
9:57
Whereas uh in other situations,
10:00
Situations, some goals could take a lifetime to achieve, such as finding one's purpose.
10:07
I mean, that's uh that's a biggie.
10:11
Marcus Aurelius said that if a thing is humanly possible, consider it within your reach.
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If it's humanly possible to do it, and you want to do it, if it's a good thing to do, then by all means, go after it.
10:28
Make it your purpose.
10:29
Can you make something your purpose?
10:31
Or does it does it have to be God given?
10:38
I think it can be both, by the way.
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And while this isn't the point of the conversation today, just in my own opinion, I think it can be both.
10:49
Um, how can it be both?
10:50
How can it be God given and uh again?
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I said this wasn't the purpose of the conversation today.
10:55
So stop asking questions that derail me.
10:59
Modern day resolutions tend to uh go more down a path uh that is usually concerned with matters of personal health, personal relationships, weight loss.
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Um I think I'm gonna quit smoking, I think I'm gonna drink less, I'm gonna manage my money a little bit better.
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These are among the most popular New Year's resolutions.
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And I don't know, maybe you're gonna make one of them.
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The sad thing here is that the average uh the average number of individuals who pursue their rever their resolutions who stay at it, you know, maintain and go after it and achieve their goals.
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Are you ready for this?
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Oh, it's I know it's shocking.
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8%.
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8% of the people who set New Year's goals, achieve them.
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And the reason they achieve them is because they stay with them.
12:00
I saw my first ad the other day for planet fitness, and I'm thinking, you know, for a dollar down and 15 bucks a month, you can go to a planet fitness gym.
12:13
And right now, uh planet fitness is probably, I would say in the next two weeks, planet fitness all over the country is going to make more money in the next two weeks than what they will maybe make all year, because I mean they're in it right here, the first two weeks of the year.
12:33
That's their busy season, you know, and then it's gonna taper off.
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And it's gonna, excuse me, it's gonna taper off because we just we don't have the sticktuitiveness, we don't stay at it.
12:48
Um because of that, because we don't have the sticktuitiveness, then there's some advice that maybe we should listen to.
12:58
And classical wisdom says, why don't you listen to the advice of the ancients?
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Because the Greeks knew what they were talking about.
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And so she uh I'm assuming this is a she.
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Again, this piece is written by Lydia Sarant.
13:15
She uh has three points here that she wants to highlight from three ancient philosophers, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, and Aristotle.
13:30
Uh, she says from Socrates that when starting something new, she makes the point that everyone is a beginner, no matter how old you are, or how many years you've spent studying one subject or how expert you are in another.
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Starting something new makes a student of us all.
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And she makes note that the only thing Socrates said that he knew was that he knew nothing.
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He understood his own ignorance.
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He approached every subject and philosophical quandary with the assumption that he knew nothing about it.
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And according to Socrates, the reality of self-ignorance inspires things such as empathy, or it encourages humility, and can even paradoxically deepen your knowledge when you admit your ignorance.
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She says the recognition, the recognition of ignorance also fosters the need to gather more information.
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If you're you know going into something assuming your ignorance, then you're going to want to gather as much information as you possibly can.
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So whether you've resolved to learn a new language, or perhaps you want to take up a new instrument.
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Acknowledge in advance that you will make mistakes and that you absolutely know nothing about it, and the best way to move forward is to use those experiences to expand your knowledge.
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And you might find that you you stay at it a little bit.
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You might find that you are part of the eight percent.
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And if more of us are part of the eight percent, then maybe the eight percent will grow a little bit.
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She refers to uh advice from Marcus Aurelius.
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Um the second point, her first point is admit your own ignorance.
15:33
Her second point is don't just talk, but also take action.
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When it comes to self-improvement, of course, we we understand that Marcus Aurelius literally wrote the book on it.
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His meditations are indeed uh his own musings on how he might improve himself.
15:54
Uh to Marcus, there's no point making a promise unless you intend to honor it.
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In other words, there's no point setting a resolution unless you are going to immediate, immediately apply it to your life in the immediate, in the here and now, apply it, go after it.
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It's a waste of your time just to say, yeah, I'm gonna do this thing and then never do it.
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Uh Marcus Aurelius in one of his meditations, he said, waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, be one.
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Just stop the debate.
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What does it mean to be a good man?
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Well, just stop talking and go be one.
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Show the world what it means.
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Those who make resolutions, perhaps to be kinder or more patient or less or less angry, should seek out books and other sources on emotional management, and then immediately put what they learned into practice.
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This is the advice of Marcus Aurelius.
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Simply wishing to avoid stress and anger is not a helpful approach.
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As stressful and anger-inducing situations will arise.
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And they're always going to be there, whether we're prepared for them or not.
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And so if we're prepared for them, if we're practicing what we learn regularly, it'll make us more resilient.
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It'll make us stronger.
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And it will give us this umph that's necessary in order to keep our resolutions.
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Recognizing the opportunities that that challenge then gives us will help us to better reach our goals.
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All right.
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So, point one by Socrates, admit your ignorance.
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Point two, Marcus Aurelius, don't just talk, take action.
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Don't just, you know, say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have this be my resolution.
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No, set a goal, and then take action to achieve that goal.
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And then number three, she here in her third point, she refers to um Aristotle.
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And her third point is realize that you are capable of change.
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She notes that Aristotle believed that character types cannot be changed.
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That's interesting.
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Because of this, people believe that Aristotle felt like you could you couldn't change, because character types, in his opinion, could not be changed.
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But Aristotle believed people could change their character.
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It's paradoxical.
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But stay with me here.
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For example, Aristotle believed that the formation of one's character development involves actions and words and personality, each playing its part.
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His theory was that those who act unjust will eventually become unjust, because their actions are taking them down this path.
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And it and maybe they're not unjust, maybe they're a just person.
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But when they begin to act unjust, they will eventually become unjust.
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So character types can't change, but people can change their character.
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You can become unjust.
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On the flip side is true.
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Uh, you can become just.
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Even if you're unjust, if you start acting justly, you can become just.
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What we say and what we do moves us closer or further away from the person we want to be.
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And negative actions and words can lead one to lead an unfulfilling life.
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It can take it can take one in this direction to be either fulfilled or to be unfulfilled.
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It's been argued.
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Of course, that Aristotle believed people could not change.
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But he actually meant the opposite.
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Aristotle tells us that one's character could be chosen in the sense that we have control over our behavior.
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He argued that if people choose to do or say only good things, their character will improve and motivate them to do more good deeds in return.
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Now, this doesn't mean that your character or habits can be changed overnight.
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But even the smallest and most simple of steps will move you closer to your goals, little by little, day by day, making them of course easier to achieve.
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Um you know, so here we are goal setting this time of the year is an ancient practice.
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Our ancestors recognized it.
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Um the Greeks, the Romans, they understood that this was an opportunity to wipe the slate clean.
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Matter of fact, January is named after the Roman god Janice who keeps one face turned to the past and one turn to the future, representing our desire to build for the future and make amends for for past mistakes.
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So this is why this time of year is so beautiful.
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And I hope that you I hope you're taking advantage of it.
21:18
All right, let's um let's pause here.
21:21
There's other things I want to get into that relate to this topic.
21:25
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Ah, 250 years.
27:30
250 years.
27:32
And so here we are.
27:33
We're we're wrapping up 2025.
27:37
And and today we're we're talking about the importance of this time.
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Just the importance of this of this time period on the calendar.
27:48
The end of the year.
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This this week, almost this week between Christmas and New Year's.
27:56
I heard it described the other day.
27:57
I was listening, Cindy and I were listening to uh the Wild at Heart Podcast, John Eldridge.
28:04
And I forget the the fellow who's on with him.
28:07
I I should remember.
28:08
I love his voice.
28:09
He's just got one of those rich deep voices, but I don't remember his name.
28:15
Anyway, it's uh Eldridge's podcast.
28:19
And the the two of them were talking about this particular week, this time frame between Christmas and New Year's.
28:30
Alan, that's his name, Alan.
28:32
I don't know what Alan's last name is.
28:34
It's John Eldridge and Alan.
28:37
And Alan said he he referred to this week as uh what's the phrase he used?
28:44
A thin time.
28:47
I think that was the phrase he used.
28:48
It's it's a thin time.
28:51
And of course, he's he's referencing C.
28:54
S.
28:54
Lewis, who refers to a thin moment where kind of the the gap between heaven and earth, the gap between the physical and and the spiritual, that that veil, as it were that that bridges the the two worlds.
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It's it's when that that fail that that that veil becomes thinner, almost where you can experience God perhaps a little better.
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I don't know if I'm explaining it well, but C.
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S.
29:32
Lewis refers to these thin times where almost we we feel God more or perhaps differently.
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It it's almost as if we were entering into this uh I don't know, for lack of a better word, a portal, if if you will, where where we almost feel God's presence more or deeper, perhaps.
30:00
And this is this is a reference to C.S.
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Lewis and Alan is of course referencing Lewis and saying that this week, this time frame between Christmas and New Year's is really a thin time.
30:15
And a lot of that is because of this opportunity to reflect.
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This opportunity for us to consider what took place last year and what we can change and how we can change.
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And I think part of that change is um reflecting, if at least if you're a Christian, it's it's reflecting on on your relationship with with Christ, reflecting on perhaps how you are moving or functioning and the fruits of the spirit.
31:03
Now, Aristotle would say, and at the end of that last segment, I read you a piece from Classical Wisdom, which is a uh a publication I follow on on Substack, and they were referencing the author of that piece was referencing Socrates and Marcus Aurelius and Aristotle in terms of of how they would reflect.
31:30
The Greek word is telos, meaning that the end or the the purpose of a thing, the end of a thing, and it's at this end of the year where we would reflect perhaps on the telos, where we would reflect on our purpose.
31:51
And as Christians, I think this is a good opportunity, and this is what Eldridge was referring to this week, this this thin period, it's a good opportunity for us to reflect on perhaps where we're landing spiritually, or or how we are, perhaps how we want to grow, how we want to, how we want to change, how we want to, how we want to maybe function differently.
32:26
Do we want to be less angry?
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And perhaps the opposite of that is having more peace in our life, or or having more peace in our heart, or um, I mean, we could go through just a list of things, and and I don't think that's my point.
32:44
My where it's it's not my point to to go, you know, start picking out things that that perhaps can change.
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My point is this is the time to do it.
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This is the time to think through these things.
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Um it's here that we can figure out the true testing of the spirit.
33:06
Those were the words of President Dwight D.
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Eisenhower.
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I want to read this to you.
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This is this is part of a of the Christmas speech he gave, 1956, Eisenhower.
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He offered these words uh to the nation during a Christmas time speech, 1956.
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He said this peace on earth, goodwill to men, these are hollowed words, though.
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I'm sorry, through ages, they've heartened and moved mankind, even though their message of peace is far too often drowned by the strident voices of the fearful or the arrogant, who fill our minds with doubt, pessimism.
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I just want to pause here for a moment, because it's it's this time that we have we have some opportunities, we have choices to make.
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We have choices on what our attitudes will reflect starting tomorrow.
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Okay, tomorrow's January 1st, and we we have some some moments here.
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We have an opportunity.
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What are we going to reflect attitudinally?
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Eisenhower references those voices here that are fearful, that are full of doubt, that are full of pessimism.
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Which voices are we going to listen to?
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I mean, we all have these moments where doubt creeps in, where pessimism creeps in, where uh fear creeps in, perhaps even some arrogance.
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Which way are we going to go?
35:08
These are the choices that we have, and right here is the time.
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This is the moment we're in this week between Christmas and New Year, where it's an opportunity to make changes.
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Opportunity, and I know tomorrow's just another day.
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It's like any other day, but there's something different about the calendar year.
35:31
There's there's something different about flipping the calendar and putting a new number to it.
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I know it's just from one day to the next, and at midnight, it's it's literally only 60 seconds, 60 seconds here, and then 60 seconds there, and it's it's a new day.
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But there's something different about changing the number to it.
35:56
There's something different about starting a brand new year.
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And how do we do it?
36:02
How do we go about it?
36:03
How are we going to start it?
36:06
Are we going to start it with fear and doubt and pessimism?
36:12
I say no.
36:13
Uh, I mean, obviously, it's it's it's not a goal to start your year out with fear and with doubt and with pessimism.
36:22
But how you start it out, it should be how you finish it.
36:28
And that's that's the tough thing.
36:32
It's easy to start out January 1st with hope.
36:35
It's easy to start it out with faith.
36:37
It's easy to start it out with, yeah, we're gonna do this, and we're gonna go to planet fitness.
36:43
We're gonna put our dollar down, we're gonna pay our 15 bucks for the month, and we're gonna work out every day, because we all start January 1st out with these grandiose goals and dreams and plans and aspirations.
36:57
But once we hit that first Monday, and this year it happens to be January 5th.
37:02
Once we roll around to January 5th, and we're like, holy smokes, I gotta get up and go to planet fitness again.
37:09
I think Monday's the 5th, isn't it?
37:11
Let's see for yeah, I think it is, and it doesn't take us long.
37:17
Coming out of that first segment, I quoted the statistic to you that only 8% of us are gonna keep our quote-unquote resolutions that just eight percent.
37:31
Those numbers are they're horrible, those are not good numbers.
37:38
You know, so why in my mind I'm I'm I'm I'm trying to think through this.
37:46
What happens to the eight percent versus the 92%?
37:50
Well, I can tell you what happens.
37:52
We start out with a bang, but then certain things creep in.
37:55
Doubt creeps in, fear creeps in, pessimism creeps in.
38:03
Oh, this isn't gonna work.
38:04
Oh, why am I even doing this?
38:05
Or perhaps some laziness creeps in.
38:08
I just don't feel like it, or perhaps some business busyness creeps in.
38:12
I don't have time.
38:13
I've got to go do this, I gotta go do that.
38:15
I gotta go do the other.
38:17
I just don't have time to keep up with this.
38:22
Or Marcus Aurelius told us that um waste no more time arguing what a good man should be, just be one.
38:32
Stop wasting time arguing about if you're gonna do a thing or not.
38:36
Just go and do it.
38:38
If you set a goal, go after it, make the goal happen.
38:42
Well, the goal didn't, you know, I didn't lose 50 pounds on by January 15th.
38:50
I I get it.
38:52
I get it, you wanted to lose 50 pounds by January 15th.
38:55
I understand that we all do.
38:57
We would all love to lose 50 pounds by January 15th.
39:01
And let's say you lost a quarter of a pound.
39:04
That slight little success, then that just needs to be captured.
39:11
That needs to be hung on to.
39:12
We need to go after that, find that success, make that success happen, and and and take that success into January, into February, into March, April, May, June, all the way around.
39:25
So we end the year as we started it.
39:29
I just uh I took some some stock in how I'm ending this year versus how I started it.
39:38
Did I end 2025 how I started it?
39:42
And my my own stock is I think of myself as an optimistic person.
39:49
I think of myself as a positive human being.
39:52
I'm a glass half full kind of guy.
39:56
But the other night when I was really taking stock.
40:00
Did I end the year?
40:02
How I started it.
40:03
I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you what I came up with, but uh we're gonna pause here for this break.
40:09
We'll we'll pick it up on the other side.
40:11
Stick around.
40:12
Thank you for joining me today, by the way.
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You're listening to the Dean's List on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
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Because this year from September to December, normally, since I look, I I'm around children all day long.
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I feel like I'm immersed in the cold and the flu constantly from September to December, definitely.
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But this year, I have come out un scathed.
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I didn't go home with the sniffles.
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I didn't go home with a fever.
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I didn't, I mean, in years past, I would have sent myself home two or three times by now with some sort of fever or some sort of cough.
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All right.
44:17
I want to get back to this the speech by by by Eisenhower.
44:22
I kind of got uh I don't want to say distracted or or hung up, but I guess I'll I'll use those words.
44:31
He used the words fearful, he used the words doubt and and pessimistic.
44:37
And uh, you know, because they're these are powerful words, and and we've all experienced them.
44:45
And so as we came out of that last segment, I I said a lot of times we'll start the year with faith and hope and excitement and energy, but we don't end it how how we started it.
44:58
Sometimes doubt is just crept in.
45:00
Fear is crept in, pessimism has crept in.
45:05
And for me personally, as I as I have taken stock over this past year, and really the past maybe 60 days, I when I compared the last 60 to the first 60 of 2025, I came to a conclusion that I did not end how I started it.
45:27
I I definitely ended more pessimistically, I guess we'll say.
45:37
Not compared to how I started it.
45:40
You know, there's this things going on.
45:43
We get we get caught up.
45:46
We get caught up with with life, we get caught up with situations, we get caught up with a variety of struggles, things come at us.
45:54
And if we're not careful, we can fall victim.
46:00
We can we can fall prey to to fear, to pessimism, to doubt.
46:08
And I ultimately I was I was surprised by my own conclusions based upon my own reflections, because I'm I'm normally not a person who gives way to fear or or who doubts things.
46:29
If if I see something I want to go after it, I'm gonna go after it.
46:33
And if it doesn't happen the first time, I'm gonna go after it again, and I'm going to I'm gonna continue striving for it.
46:42
But as I begin to think about how this year was ending, I took stock of my own attitude.
46:51
And I gotta tell you, it wasn't good.
46:53
My own attitude was not good.
46:57
And I realized, you know, in this in this moment in this in this week between Christmas and New Year's, which on the on the oil that heart podcast, they called to it to a thin time.
47:11
That uh in in my own notes here, I'm coming to the conclusion that one of the things I want to change for next year is I want to end the year how I started it.
47:25
If I'm gonna start strong, I want to end even stronger.
47:31
And in order for me to maintain that focus from end to beginning, or from beginning to end, however you want to term it.
47:44
I'm realizing here that the focus has to be the same from from day one as it is to day 31.
47:54
As it is today 51, as it is today 71, as it there has to be these periodic checkups, I guess it were, as it were throughout the year.
48:07
These little check-ins.
48:08
Hey, how you doing?
48:10
And I'm just talking about me personally.
48:12
How are you doing, Dean?
48:14
Where are you at here?
48:15
What are you at the same energy level, the same level of enthusiasm, the same level of faith and hope and stick to itiveness here on day 93 as you were on day one?
48:30
It's the first hundred days, and this is how a lot of times how a presidential term is measured.
48:38
They look at it as the first hundred days.
48:42
Uh I'm kind of taking that that attitude with myself here, the first hundred days.
48:50
But when we get to 101, then how about the second hundred days?
48:55
And then when we get to 201, how about the third hundred days?
49:00
And then how about the last 65?
49:03
I think I'm gonna break it up into these chunks.
49:05
I'm just kind of thinking out loud here.
49:09
I mean, for me personally, the goal is to end the year, how it began.
49:16
I want to end it how I'm gonna start it.
49:20
That's just, I don't know, maybe something to think about.
49:22
All right.
49:23
Didn't mean to get sidetracked.
49:25
I want to get back to Eisenhower's speech here because there's there's something else that I want to point out.
49:31
He continues and says, the spirit of Christmas returns.
49:35
Yeah, because again, this is a Christmas speech, 1956.
49:39
He started out with peace on earth, goodwill to men.
49:42
He says the spirit of Christmas returns yet again to enable us to gain understanding of each other, to help each other, to obey the elemental precepts of justice, to practice goodwill toward all men of every tongue and color and creed.
50:00
To remember that we are all identical in our aspirations for a peaceful, a decent, a rewarding life.
50:08
I just I love that.
50:11
We're all identical in our aspirations.
50:15
Jefferson said we were created equal and endowed with our creator with a certain inalienable rights.
50:25
He listed three, but I think perhaps the right to have aspirations is also something that's given to us by God.
50:36
And here is Eisenhower says we're we're all identical in those aspirations.
50:42
And he even listed some things that we might aspire to.
50:47
A peaceful, a decent and a rewarding life.
50:50
These are all uh things that we might have aspirations towards.
51:00
I don't know, that's just a little sidebar.
51:02
I happen to love it.
51:03
That we're all identical on that.
51:06
Okay.
51:07
Uh he continues and says, in the warm glow of the Christmas tree, it is easy to say these things.
51:14
But when the trees come down and the lights are put away, as they always are, then we have a true testing of the spirit.
51:24
Bump bum bum.
51:26
That testing, he says, will be answered throughout the year ahead by the success each of us experiences in keeping alive the inspiration and the exaltation of this moment.
51:39
And this is what I was referring to myself personally, that when the warm glow of the Christmas tree comes down, or for many of us, when when the warm glow of the new year begins to subside, once we get into the into the doldrums of the the tail end of January, and our resolutions begin to fade away, where do we stand?
52:09
Where do we where do we stack up against our our goals or our aspirations, as it were?
52:16
He said, then we have a true testing of the spirit.
52:21
Once the Christmas tree is put away and the lights come down, we have a true testing of the spirit.
52:26
Once we have you know completed the first couple of weeks of the new year and we're getting into the end of January, then we have a true testing of the spirit, and that testing will be answered throughout the year ahead.
52:39
Hence my own personal check ins.
52:43
You know, at the end of the hundred days, where am I?
52:46
How am I doing?
52:48
And I'm not just talking about checking off goals.
52:51
For me, I'm talking about attitude.
52:53
Where am I at attitudinally?
52:57
What's my hope level?
52:59
What's my love level?
53:01
What's my my level of peace and joy and um patience and these things which that that Paul refers to as fruits of the spirit, a true testing of the spirit is is what uh is how Eisenhower terms it.
53:20
And that testing will be answered throughout the year ahead by the success each of us experiences in keeping alive the inspiration and the exaltation of this moment.
53:30
Now he's talking about the Christmas season, and I'm uh extrapolating it out to the new year, and and here we are in this moment, but has that continued?
53:44
Do we have the success that are we experiencing success and keeping alive the inspiration and the exaltation of this moment?
53:53
Because it's a very inspiring moment.
53:56
It's easy to be inspired at the first of the year.
54:00
All right, Eisenhower continues.
54:02
I'm gonna, I'm gonna read this this last little paragraph here.
54:06
We must proceed by faith, he says, knowing the light of Christmas is eternal, though we cannot always see it.
54:15
We must believe that the truth of Christmas is constant, that men can live together in peace, as Lincoln said, with charity for all, with firmness in the right.
54:28
And that is a reference from Lincoln's second inaugural address.
54:35
It's eternal.
54:36
The light of Christmas is eternal.
54:38
We must proceed with this faith, even though we can't always see it.
54:43
And the same holds true for the inspiration of turning the calendar to a new year.
54:49
That inspiration can be eternal, even though we don't always see it.
54:56
And it kind of carries over from the whole Christmas season.
54:59
It's a good carryover.
55:01
You know, but we're coming out of this time where if you celebrate Christmas, if you're a Christian, then you you celebrate it.
55:11
And the celebration is specific.
55:14
It's towards a specific event.
55:20
And we in our hearts at least, we take the the birth of Christ and what it means to us, and we allow that to carry over into the new year.
55:33
Many of us allow that that moment, that that thought, that feeling, as it were, to be the foundation for our inspiration for going into a new year.
55:46
I think it's a fantastic place to start.
55:49
I really do.
55:50
All right.
55:51
Um my own musings today, my own musings on the on the end of the year, and what it means to look forward to it to a new year, what it means to set goals and to go after it.
56:05
And I hope all of you are.
56:11
I hope you've spent some time thinking about how you want to proceed and how you want to go about it, because it's it's a beautiful time to do it.
56:20
It's an important time to do it.
56:22
All right, my friends, I'm looking at the clock, and and this year is coming to a close.
56:27
I want to thank you for joining me again for another calendar year.
56:32
Thank you for being a part of this program.
56:34
Uh, thank you for celebrating with us.
56:38
And thank you for coming along on this journey.
56:41
Thank you for joining us on Substack.
56:43
I appreciate it.
56:44
The Substack continues to grow.
56:47
Listen, if you want good historical content, I got an email today from somebody, and she just said, I'm just uh thank you.
56:54
I just I love reading the complete story.
56:57
And I had, you know, she she read one of the posts on Washington crossing the Delaware and the the history of the painting itself and some things that maybe we didn't know about the painting.
57:08
And I'd like to include that kind of stuff.
57:10
And her note was just simple.
57:11
She said, Thank you.
57:12
I love reading the entire story.
57:14
Listen, if you want to read the whole story and join us at Substack, but nonetheless, encourage your friends and family to get on the dean's list.
57:24
Let's unite to renovate the age.