January 2026

January Thought of the Month

"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week."

~ Charles Richards

If you're like me, every year seems to go by faster that the last one. Yet it's still the same 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Adding a day to February every four years doesn't really make a big impact on our perception of time's passage. The mistake we make is focusing more on time itself rather than on how we use it.

Our daily lives are full of things we have to do: go to work or school, clean house, do yard work, run errands, pay bills, meet social, business, and family obligations. And most of that requires commutes often measured in hours. It's no wonder we can feel like we don't have enough time.

But we must be the masters of our time. The start of a new year often triggers the desire to make improvements. We set new goals or pick up old ones in the form of resolutions. We're destined to fail if we stop there. We need a step-by-step plan to get to where we want to be.

The first step is to determine what needs to happen to achieve the goal. If it's to lose weight, the goals needed would include increasing the exercise we get. Make an outline with the goal at the top and all the actions you can think of that will help you achieve it in the levels beneath.

The next step to do is work each action into the time within and around the things we already have to do. For example, to get in more exercise find ways to make it part of our daily routine. Take walks during work breaks, park at the far end of the parking lot so we walk longer distances to the office or store, keep small weights and/or a desk elliptical where we sit to watch TV or stream online and give ourselves a workout while we watch our favorite programs. Do it until it becomes routine.

And, most importantly, keep the goals chart in a visible place. That out of sight out of mind saying really holds true. A visual reminder of tasks to do helps us keep on track. As you accomplish something, check it off. And at the end of the year, don't berate yourself for all the things you didn't do. Instead, look at the visual proof of all you really did in the "time you didn't have," which will serve as inspiration for future goal setting success.

[Thought and image design by Elaine C. Oldham]