Vaughn Jackson

Happy New Year every body. I hope you have the greatest year ever. My moto for this year is: “Everything will be Great in 08′.” Now that’s partially hoping, but mainly knowing. I know this year will be Great, because I’m not taking anything less than that. In years past I’ve made New Year Resolutions that would come and go. They would start strong and fade fast.

This year I’m doing something new, and that is that I decided to change my life. I know that sounds pretty profound and a bit far fetched, but I said it and I meant it. I’m going to change my life. Now this can’t happen over night and not everything will stick right from the beginning, but it’s something that I have to do for me.

If you know me then you know that I used to drink ALLOT and when I say ALLOT, I don’t mean that I would drink allot on the nights when I would drink. No, I was drinking allot meaning almost everyday. Right…there is a problem with that. And I didn’t start to realize it until the end of December. Believe me it’s not something that I should have over looked considering that I had a Liver Cancer scare only a few years ago. Yeah…I didn’t share that with allot of people. But after you feel like you could die within a year or so…you would think that would make you stop drinking. Well when I found out I was miss-diagnosed I went and celebrated with a Drink. Purely stupid and I know that now. Ok…so you get the point I was an idiot at times, but I’ve always loved to have a good time and at some point that became synonamis with drinking.

After that was realized, I began to look at the rest of my life and I really didn’t have much to be proud of. I mean I do, but not to the standards that I used to hold myself to. I think it’s awesome that I’m 33 years old never been divorced, don’t have any kids out of wedlock, have a nice job, and basically have good health over all. And that’s not bad, but also…I’m 33 years old: not married, I don’t have any kids, my job doesn’t pay what it should, if I squat my knees begin to burn in 10sec. So you see I’m not bad, but it’s no the family of 4 by the age of 25 I thought I’d have when I was 15yrs old. So at that point I decided that I need to find my roots and get back to that kid at 15yrs that had goals, that had integrity, that had a focus. I lost that somewhere, and I can tell you that that somewhere was in a bottle.

Now I’ve chosen to Become a Better Me. And there is only one way you can do that, and that’s by Doing It! It’s not easy, but it’s definitely not hard. You just have to want it. My first step at this happened to be to stop drinking like I was crazy. That wasn’t easy, but I’ve been honest and I’ve been good about it. After that I found a guide that has been perfect for what I was aiming to do, and it is actually titled the same thing. Become a Better You by Joel Osteen. Now, I’m not trying to preach or anything, but this is a great book that can help you. It’s helping me and I’m only in the 2nd Chapter.

To become a better you, you must:

1. Keep Pressing forward.
2. Be positive toward yourself.
3. Develop better relationships.
4. Form better habits.
5. Embrace the place where you are.
6. Develop your inner life.
7. Stay passionate about life.

Basically all I’m saying is this. Forget your New Years Resolution to eat right, go to the gym, play more golf, spend more time with your kids, call your mom more often, go to church more, treat your dog better, wash the car every week, or treat my wife more special. Instead change your life! With you being the Best you that you can be, all of these things will change along with it. Not because you tried to do these things, but because those are the things that YOU do!