My New Year's Resolution what's your's

[larrymeyer]

As we entered the Christmas Season I stopped to think about what was important to me and, as always, my family wanted to know what my New Year's resolutions would be. I didn't have any at the time but as I thought about the last few years I decided that the first thing I was going to do was try to eliminate the cynicism that comes from years of seeing only the worst in people and planning for worst case scenarios. I started by remembering how very lucky I am to have such a wonderful family and nine beautiful grandchildren. I am grateful that we live in a country that doesn't measure a person's eligibility for medical care by the color of their skin or their immigration status and I am grateful that we provide the prenatal care necessary for the health expectant mothers.

My cynicism for the whole issue of illegal immigration is now reserved for our professional politicians and their political power plays that do nothing to solve the problem.

Enough rambling...

Cynicism is understandable when you've worked the streets for any length of time, but it is also counterproductive. It's easy to see the problems and list all the negative fallout that will result. The thing is, most of the time we don't experience the worst case scenario. Most of the time things work out okay. Crime rates are an example. A few years ago when every criminologist in the world was predicting a crime wave of immeasurable proportions we prepared for the worst, and it didn't happen. In fact, crime went down. Nobody seems to know why. It just did.

We prepare, or at least we should prepare, for a worst case scenario every time we make a high-risk entry or respond to a domestic call. In most cases we are over-prepared, and that's okay in terms of officer survival but it also contributes to our cynicism.

Physically we prepare ourselves for the confrontation that we know will occur. We work out hard; we try to reach our pain threshold in training so we can tolerate it when we are challenged on the street. Yet, we are only involved in physical confrontations about 2% of the time. Most of those are minor uses of force. In spite of that, the idea is still in our head that we need to be ready for the worst and unless we are careful that's how we end up viewing the world. In preparing for the worst we lose sight of the best things that are coming our way. We forget how to prepare ourselves to see the good in what's happening around us and in that idea I found a reason for my New Year's resolution.

We live in a cynical world. We are in a cynical profession; maybe the most cynical of professions. But in our profession we also have the opportunity to make it a brighter and better world for those around us, and by doing that we can brighten our own world. My New Year's resolution is to engage in one act of unexpected kindness every day. Maybe we can't change the world, but we can change moments in time, and that may be what's more important

[Montanya]

Ok for those of us with no lives on new years eve I will toss out my new years resolutions..

1: Lose weight (I know I know but see my sig I have to keep that one on top)
2: Reinvent myself (Too often we define ourselves by other people or our jobs, I resolve to be more ME and less everyone else's vision of what I should be)
3: Find style (Like most guys I have a HORRID sense of style, I am resolute in learning and applying style)

Is that ALL I want to accomplish in 2008? No, but if I can do that much it will be a major accomplishment.

[axmdr40]

to quit smoking

[Montanya]

to quit smoking

That's a tough one too. My wife is doing that now. I think she found it easier as she started out switching to the clove cigarettes. They are made from cloves and are available in most dedicated tobacco shops. No nicotine but still something you smoke and I think it makes the nicotine addiction lessen and still keeps the habit part and then after you break the nicotine addiction it is easier to break the habit.

Good luck and stay strong on it. It's always easier too if you can find someone else that is tryign to quit that lives around or works with you and work off the buddy system or challenge each other to see who can "stay" quit the longest.

[Michele]

Try to stop smoking without driving myself insane.
Get some stuff done in the house.
Loosing some weight.
Expanding my business.

[CrazyWhiteGuy]

That's a tough one too. My wife is doing that now. I think she found it easier as she started out switching to the clove cigarettes. They are made from cloves and are available in most dedicated tobacco shops. No nicotine but still something you smoke and I think it makes the nicotine addiction lessen and still keeps the habit part and then after you break the nicotine addiction it is easier to break the habit.

Good luck and stay strong on it. It's always easier too if you can find someone else that is tryign to quit that lives around or works with you and work off the buddy system or challenge each other to see who can "stay" quit the longest.

Be careful with smoking cloves, I used to smoke cherry ones and after a year or so I started coughing up blood.

Resolutions:
1. completely stop smoking. (down to 7 cigarettes a day from a pack and a half a few months ago)
2. work on my combat groupings
3. get a PA license to carry
4. get a Beretta 92fs

[thirtyonebravo]

Expanding my business.

what's your business?

[Michele]

what's your business?

I own a few Italian Bread routes in NYC.

[PA Rifleman]

Shoot more.

[DaveM55]

Lose weight and pay off my credit cards.

Surpass EM in post count.