Party hearty? …hardly!

Do you plan to party hearty for New Year’s Eve?

By the video of what usually happens on Times Square in New York, you get the impression that everybody’s out for a wild time this weekend. But, you guessed it, another survey — this time by NationalToday.com canvassing 1,000 Americans — indicates that only 11% plan to actually go to a “party hearty” this weekend.

So, contrary to popular image, to party hearty on New Year’s Eve and abuse booze actually puts you in a small minority. If you’re out and about on the highways going back home, 11% is still waaaaaaay too much. But maybe the irresponsible are not as innumerable as we might think.

We party. By tradition, we host a get-together with some of our church family friends every New Year’s Eve. But I’m still trying to figure out which one of the following survey responses best fit my personal circumstances:

45% say they plan to break in the New Year with family

24% will hang out in their own house

11% will party hearty

7% will attend a nice dinner with friends

No doubt the booze flows at family gatherings or even when home alone. But, hopefully, alcohol abuse in such settings is not the norm. The same survey folks also asked this more revealing question: When will you fall asleep on New Year’s Eve?

12% say they go to sleep before midnight

21% go right to bed at 12 a.m.

25% will stay up past 2 a.m.

(hmmm… add those up and there’s a big percentage that stay up all night or, evidently, just not sayin’!)

Resolutions are what make this weekend’s holiday stand apart from all others. I don’t exactly recall which year I realized this, but the resolutions you’re most likely to hear are fairly predictable:

#1: Lose weight  … which brings to mind a Jay Leno quip: “Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average, which means you have met your New Year’s resolution.”

#2: Exercise more … in order to lose weight.

#3: Eat healthier … to lose weight and, yes, I’ll start right after we get through all the leftovers from our New Year’s Eve party.

#4: Personal growth … to stop hanging around people who keep their New Year’s resolutions

#5: Spend more time with family … especially whenever we decide to rendezvous for Q39 barbecue or for some burnt ends at Hawg Jaw BBQ in NKC, or whenever we fire up the smoker to do some barbecue on our own.

I’m serious about keeping #5. You see, whenever you actually keep a New Year’s resolution you are among an elite 8% who claim to do so. But don’t cheat. Try writing down how you measure activity as the New Year unfolds. Don’t simply declare some result as if you’ve conquered your goal. Apply these disciplines:

Tell the truth…

Write what scares you…

Don’t take yourself so seriously…

Try a new genre…

Write when you don’t feel like it…

Do your research…

Rewrite until it hurts…

There are many reasons people can’t stick to their resolutions, from setting too many of them to getting derailed by small failures. So, some people get cute and resolve not to make any more resolutions. And, in doing so, immediately break their resolve and then proclaim to be done with resolutions (for this year). I’ve witnessed this, how ’bout you?

If I were to be serious, I would simply resolve to thank, to compliment, and to encourage. And though I am doomed to fail, I still feel that this New Year’s resolution is worth the effort.

Alas, Mark Twain said it best as the new year dawned on Jan. 1, 1863: “Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”