As we start 2018, we enter the New Year with lots of high hopes and positive energy. This year we are definitely going to lose weight, get in shape, quit smoking, clean the attic, eat healthy and so forth. Kind of like what our plans were for last year, and the year before that. Time just slipped away before we could see many of our goals all the way through. Don’t get me wrong, I am not passing judgment, because I am right there with you on a lot of issues.

I have added a new personal resolution, which is trying to beat my addiction to Hallmark Christmas movies. I just can’t seem to delete them and now I find myself sneaking off to watch them. It has become a situation I may need to seek therapy for.

What I realize the older I get is the one thing I can’t make up for in the new year is time. Time waits for no one. As Buddha says, “The trouble is you think you have time.” This quote inspired the topic of this month’s column.

I have decided that my motto for this year will be “eat dessert first,” and I am not really referring to food. I want to make sure all the good and truly important things in my life happen now while I have the gift of time. Remember, the one thing we can never count on is more time, enough time, turning back time, or making time stand still. The time is now!

November of 2017, I lost my precious dog, Tommy (pictured below).

I felt like a huge part of my heart went with him. I started to wonder if getting a new dog was too much work and responsibility at this point in my life. After a really rough few days, I realized I had plenty of love to give and as soon as possible. I mean, seriously, who doesn’t need a dog in their life? No other creature on earth will love you more than they even love themselves. As for the possibility of getting up several times during the night, well, thanks to menopause, I haven’t slept through the night since 2012. Now I will have adorable company to join me.

My husband and I started our search immediately and now our hearts are overflowing again with our two new puppies, Donny and Marie (pictured below). Life is too short, and time is too precious. Keep your time filled with the things, the people and the pets that make your life full and happy. A minute wasted is a minute lost forever.

I think where we fall short on all our New Year’s resolutions is that we just state the desire, but we don’t truly think it through from concept to completed achievement. For example: I would like to lose some weight. My thought process needs to follow all the way through. Let’s start again. I would like to lose some weight by walking at least five days a week and taking ballroom dance lessons up to three times a week at NSB Ballroom. I would like to fit into a gown that I outgrew, just a smidge, a few years ago. I would like to fit into this gown for an event I will attend in June.

Now I have a goal, a plan to put it into effect, and a reasonable date of when I will achieve my resolution. See how this works? Don’t be upset if you fall down every now and again. Pick yourself up and start over. In time it will get easier.

The first day my husband and I started our plan of walking for weight loss and fitness, we started with coffee and a piece of pie first. We then walked 15 minutes and stopped at a restaurant for more breakfast before we made the last 15-minute trek home. The second day, we had coffee, walked 30 minutes and came home and got ready for work. Sometimes you start with baby steps and build up from there instead of starting 100 percent in and then falling short or losing focus before your goal is met.

We all need to make a much greater effort to find time before it is lost forever. The words “time management” are seriously important words to live by. You know how people always say, “If you want to get something done, ask a busy person.” Why?

Because they are experts on managing their time and being able to figure out how to find more time in their day for all they wish to do. It’s not rocket science, but so many of us treat it like it is.

We put off things for tomorrow when we really have no excuse not to follow through with our life plans today. No regrets. That’s what we all need to work on. That should be everyone’s New Year’s resolution. If today were your last day on earth, how would you want to spend it and with whom?

Figure out the answers and then move forward to make them come to fruition now instead of becoming a regret later.

My mom raised me with a wonderful motto when I was young. She would say, “It is better to say I am glad I did instead of having to say I wished I had.” I don’t think truer words were ever spoken. My mom was brilliant.