Resolution to Commitment

As one calendar year ends and yet another begins, we all start with the best of intentions. And, honestly, what's not to like about starting fresh? We have what we view as a clean slate with 8,760 hours ahead of us to change the world, one day at a time.

Let's be honest with ourselves for a second though. As good as our intentions may be, how often do we truly follow through on our New Year's resolutions? I'm quite sure that there are many that have and do each year. I say kudos to those that have because those are the ones that have really committed to a goal. More often than not, however, we make resolutions and never quite follow through with myself being just as guilty as the next person.

It begs the question - Why do we make resolutions each year to begin with? Do we make them with the intention of following through on them or do we make them to make ourselves feel better?

I believe that people make resolutions because they want to better themselves and want to accomplish their goals. However, throughout our everyday lives it can certainly be difficult to accomplish those goals and it can certainly be easy to forget what they were in the first place.

The key is not to make a resolution, but to make a commitment. Whether it is a commitment to being a better spouse or parent, a commitment to improving your overall health or a commitment to becoming closer to God - if we truly commit to something in our heart and soul, it is much more likely that we accomplish what we set out to do.

As we close the book on one decade and open a new chapter with another, may 2011 bring us all happiness, health and a true commitment to our resolutions.

Creativity

As a writer (or at least someone who would like to think he is), I have this habit of wanting to write a whole lot in one short amount of time, yet never finding the time to do so. It's a very interesting conundrum to have creative juices flowing at a time when everyone else, including me, should be sleeping.

It begs a question - when are we the most creative? More importantly, are we creative when we truly need to be?

I've always thought of myself as a creative person which is a difficult concept for others to grasp for a variety of reasons. I feel that I am creative when no one else thinks I should be and at some point in your life I bet that you have felt the same way.

Here's a perfect example...

Son: "I don't want to go potty daddy..."

Daddy: "Well, do you know that if you don't go potty, that the pull-up monster will eat your pee-pee?"

Son: "I'll go potty now."

When do you think you are most creative?

From my limited experience, the more I read the more creative I am. I tend to answer more questions with logical answers, not because I make stuff up, but because I have become more learned in a certain subject.

I could very easily say "Well, I haven't written a blog for awhile, therefore, I'm not going to make you think." That would be too easy.

If I didn't want you to think, I wouldn't write what I do.

With that being said, I'll ask a very deep, yet simple question.

When do you think you are most creative?

Perhaps you are most creative when you first wake up, although I doubt you are. Are you the most creative after that first cup of coffee? I'd venture to say that you are not. I could be wrong, but I would bet that you are the most creative when you don’t expect to be.

Everyone is different, but at the same time very similar when it comes to creative juices. We are creative when we need to be and when we least expect it, just like the example I displayed above. Creative juices flow with every decision we make on a daily basis and just like we don’t expect to make those big decisions, we don’t expect that creativity to happen. It just does.

Perhaps we need to just let it happen, not force it, have faith and let it be it what it is.

And there's No Bonz Bout It!

Bob and The Boss

In my opinion, to be a true New York Yankees fan means more than just liking the game of baseball or just following the team. To be a true Yankees fan means you are a history student and your teachers are not professors from a university, but the generation before you. And your teachers were taught by the generation before them. My father was my teacher and his father his. Hopefully, I can teach my children this history as they continue to grow.

And in this history lesson as a Yankees fan, you learn about personalities and players, heroes and legends. This week, the Yankees and their fans lost not one, but two legends of the Bronx.

"Ladies and gentleman, your attention please. Welcome to Yankee Stadium." - Bob Sheppard

Two sentences, ten words. Ten simple words so eloquently said so many times by Bob Sheppard. No matter where you might be at the ballpark or what you were doing, when those words were uttered a chill went up your spine.

Bob Sheppard transcended what a public address announcer is and did so by exhibiting class and dignity throughout his distinguished career. He became successful the old-fashioned way, through attention to detail and a desire to be excellent.

The voice lives on, not only every time Derek Jeter is introduced to hit (through a recording of Sheppard's introduction), but it lives on in countless classrooms throughout Yankee Nation with teachers from one generation imitating (although never duplicating) introductions of Mantle and Maris to students from the next generation.

And the voice will continue to live on as teachers from one generation imitating (although never duplicating) introductions of Jeter and O'Neill to students from the next generation.

Just like Sheppard transcended the PA announcer position, George Steinbrenner was a larger than life character that transcended what ownership meant.

Hell, he almost transcended the city of New York.

Former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent summed it up best when he said Steinbrenner was complicated. If there were a word that properly hyperbolized complicated, that's the word I would use to describe what Steinbrenner was.

However, much like Sheppard, albeit in a different way, The Boss demanded excellence and he turned around what was, at the time, a much maligned organization and returned it to excellence. There's something to be said about that.

And there is something to be said about how he threw his money around, and I'm not talking about free agents. Steinbrenner gave millions of dollars to a variety of causes, but most times would never attach his name to the donation giving back to the community quietly and anonymously.

Recently, when talking to a friend about the passing of these two legends, he said:

"Wow, Shep and now The Boss. I think they will fill mystique and aura's shoes in the new house quite well and I believe their work has only just begun."

I think the only way that could have been said better is if Bob Sheppard himself said it with The Boss listening from his owner's box.

And There's No Bonz About That.