Now that a lot of us are sitting beside a pile of broken New Year’s resolutions, I think it’s time for a reality check.

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year.  I haven’t made them for several years.

I failed at them for so long, only succeeding with the last one I made.  I vowed a few years ago to never to make another New Year’s resolution.  I kept that one.

I prefer instead to set goals throughout the year.    The goal approach carries more weight than a resolution, and the guilt bothers you more when you fail at it.  I know this from experience.

Last year, I set a goal to lose 20 pounds.  I only have 25 pounds to go, and I feel terrible about it.

Before setting a new goal, you must first acknowledge a weakness.  For example, I procrastinate far too much.  I actually started this column a year ago, and I kept putting off finishing it.  So I have a goal to do that far less in the future.

I needed a new car last year and in January, I set a goal to buy one by August.  The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I drove my new car off the lot thinking “This feels good.  Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

So, one of my goals is to finish projects I start in a more timely fashion.  I have already begun a column about Independence Day.  I should have it finished by early September.

I’m going to institute another big change in my life.  I will cook more at home and eat out less.  Part of the reason is I now have that new car I bought before Thanksgiving and the payments that go with it.

I also recently became the proud owner of a good crock pot with lots of bells and whistles, and I plan to learn to use it.  So don’t be surprised if I show up at your door with my latest culinary creation.  Actually, do be surprised, because this food is for me, not for you.

I’ll also take my leftovers to work for lunch instead of eating so much fast food. You can save a lot of money that way.

There’s a story about actor Fred McMurray, who could be pretty thrifty with a buck.  You might remember him from movies like “Double Indemnity” and TV shows like “My Three Sons”.

His fellow actors noticed that every day on the set, his bagged lunch included a hard boiled egg that he would dutifully peel and eat.  Think of it.  Here’s a rich movie star who packs his own lunch.

One warm August day after consuming the hard boiled egg, McMurray proudly announced “Well, that’s the last of the Easter eggs!”

Now that’s thrifty.  It’s also a great bagged lunch story.  It’s probably a good food poisoning story too.

But, back to my goals.

This year is an election year, so I’ve set a personal goal to be a more informed voter.  That way, when someone asks me why I voted for that jerk, I’ll have a good reason as to why I supported that jerk and not the other one.

I’m going to pray more this year.  And I don’t mean public, formal prayers with lots of Thees and Thous in them — the kind of prayers you send up just because you think you’re supposed to.

I’m talking about the private conversational prayers that begin “Lord, I don’t know what the heck’s going on down here these days, but we need you now more than ever before.”

We need a lot more of that kind of praying anyway, especially now.

I think I’ll pay less attention to Facebook this year, and more attention to actual faces.  Social media isn’t a bad thing, but it can become all consuming.  Face to face contact with people and good conversation never goes out of style.

You probably have lots of goals of your own; everything from cleaning out a closet to living a healthier life.  The important thing to remember is a resolution is only something you resolve to do.  Political bodies resolve things all the time, and they fail regularly.

A goal is a journey.  You can lay it aside for a moment, then pick it up later.  If you fail to keep it today, it forgives you and gives you another chance tomorrow.

Now, back to that Independence Day column…

Kent Bernhardt lives in Salisbury.