New Year Resolutions: Let's Get Realistic

My friend Mano Watsa is more than a basketball player. He was a four-time OUA Conference All-Star, two-time All-Canadian point guard and captain for the University of Waterloo. In 1999 he toured with the USA Athletes In Action team, was awarded the National TSN Award for combining excellence in athletics, academics and community involvement, and was named University of Waterloo Male Athlete of the Year. Mano is not a big man. He only stands 5’10”, yet he has a vertical of 42 inches. Was he born with a tremendous ability to jump? Hardly. Mano explains, “In grade 9 I could not touch the mesh. In grade 12 I could not touch the rim. But, I was determined to dunk!” He developed a series of exercises to improve his agility. In his usual giving fashion, Mano has posted the 'Above the Rim' jump program on his website so others may benefit. Be sure to visit www.morethanhoops.com.Before you start the Above the Rim program, you are asked to measure and record your current jumping ability. Once you start applying the program, you are asked to measure your progress every three months. Wait a minute...every three months? Yes, in this age of instant oatmeal, instant coffee, instant cameras, instant weight loss and instant oil changes, some things still take time. We’ve all made some worthy New Year’s resolutions over the years. But how often have we made achieving them impossible by forgetting where we are starting from, and by attaching unrealistic timelines to them? How often have we grown discouraged and dropped our resolutions altogether? This year, be sure to make those lofty New Year’s resolutions again, but give yourself a reasonable time frame to achieve them. Mano couldn’t touch the mesh in grade 9. He couldn’t touch the rim in grade 12. But today, he can dunk with the best of them. Ask yourself...

• What are the three most important things I am committed to for this year and beyond?
• What are the realistic, long-term goals I have set to plan and carry out these commitments?

The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride. – Ecclesiastes 7:8 Have a blessed 2010 everyone!