CTD3

"Happy New Year". There, that's said & done.

Like more than a few veterans, I still have a bit of wanderlust deep in my soul. One of the best things about being in uniform was the concept of waking up in one place, doing your duty, and ending up in a totally different place at the end of the mission. I don't get nearly enough of that these days. Another was, you knew that in a few years, you would be expected to pack up and move to a new duty location. Didn't like the weather or the culture? In three or four years, you'd be in a different part of the country or even a different part of the world.

Anyway, for many months now I've had the ol' desire kick in. The town where I live is a nice place, scenic & relatively peaceful.  I want something different. That's where the acronym started.

Counting The Days - in the military, one thing you could count on was most members didn't keep the same job/duties throughout their careers. About the time you got proficient at your specific duties, it was time to move on to bigger challenges, greater responsibilities. Also, the change could help you compete for higher skill qualification, promotion, further increased responsibility, etc..

That feeling gets ingrained in your system, to the point where I find myself many days looking for something new & uplifting. I'm definitely ready for change. I find myself counting the days until I can change location and take on the new challenges that result.

Last Saturday while running errands, I found myself thinking about New Year's Day. I wondered about the concept of resolutions and how for a change I actually maintained a few throughout the last year. I was able keep active physically. I did take the time to read a bit more than most years. I did a bit more community service than previous years. None of this is meant as a brag, but acknowledgement that every day doesn't have to be a compromise of "I didn't do X because I was obligated to do Y".

In the midst of the out-and-about, a couple of other thoughts popped up.

Close The Door - In previous years, I beat myself up relentlessly when I failed to maintain a resolution past mid-January. So, it finally hit me that I could close the door on the past. For decades, I'd been taught not to dwell on the past. For those same decades, I'd rationalize that away by convincing myself "I don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past". It's finally hit me that I can close the door on my past. While those experiences are part of me, I don't have to make them an active part of today's decision-making. Better late than not at all, I guess.

Clear The Decks - I'd guess most of us are surrounded by nonsense, compassed about by the madness of the world. I have allowed myself to be dragged into it from time to time. I found myself aggravated by so many of life's inconveniences, where I found myself in a constant state of agitation. And for what? What do I actually gain by cultivating such agitation? Yep, it was a classic what-was-I-thinking moment. So, a goal is to clear the decks, sweep away those minor aggravations that take away my joy.

As I mulled over these thoughts, I realized the clichés could share the same acronym. Elementary, to be sure, but I got a chuckle out of it. Since I found it somewhat funny, I figured I'd better write it down so I didn't forget it. (Yeah, I'm easily entertained.)

I've heard of folk writing affirmations & taping them to a bathroom mirror or some other place where they'd be seen regularly. I used to think that was a bunch of hokum, that I was too smart and sophisticated to resort to such.

This time, I did it. This acronym is taped on my bathroom mirror. It still seems like hokum, but now I'm enjoying the hokum instead of mocking it.

Let's see how funny it seems as the months roll by...