By Frank Sinatra, AAP Editor 

Santa came and went in a cookie-fueled, toy-laden sojourn ‘round the globe; the giant ball dropped at Times Square at the stroke of midnight January 1, 2017; and we don’t have to listen to Jenny McCarthy blather on for at least another 360 or so days. We are now free to take a deep breath and get ready to pick up the soon-to-be broken pieces of our New Year’s resolutions. They. Just. Don’t. Last.

Why do we torture ourselves so? It’s a lot of pressure, taking a solemn oath from this day forward to eat better, wake up earlier, be kinder, remember to cover our mouths when we cough, yadda, yadda, yadda. It’s like cramming for a final exam by binge reading the text book the day before. Which, I’ve done. I got an A, but I don’t recommend it. At all. Seriously, don’t do it.

Anyway, back to resolutions. Do we, as human beings, truly improve upon ourselves by going cold turkey at 12:01 a.m. on January 1? Just because you’re watching Fergie announce pop artists you’ve never heard of in a previously-recorded performance from the West Coast doesn’t mean you’re going to transform into a totally different person after you dump the rest of the New Year’s Eve champagne from the bottle that you couldn’t possibly finish.

Now I’m not saying that making life improvements isn’t important. It is. And there are some people out there that actually do make New Year’s resolutions that truly stick – it’s like the “sometimes Y” rule for vowels. It does happen. Occasionally.

I am saying that while the intention is important, the approach of the New Year’s resolution is what I find lacking. After January 1, 2017, our brains recognize that the holiday season that the general population observes is officially over. We clean up the mess, take down the tree… eventually… and life gets back to normal. But getting back to normal isn’t change. Far from it.

I think that when it comes to self improvement, most of us truly benefit from a “slow and steady” approach to win the race. If you want to take up running, you don’t immediately sign up to run a marathon the next day. You walk. A lot. Then you jog more than you walk. And all of a sudden, you’re actually running. You might even be ready to take on bigger things that involve finish lines and medals.

We’re not perfect people. We make mistakes. Sometimes we’re really good at that part. You need to factor that in. Just remember to pick yourself up and dust yourself off when it happens.

So why not just put one foot in front of the other? Ease into it, but keep moving forward. Soon you’ll be walking out the door. Hey, it worked for the Winter Wizard.

On behalf of the entire staff of All Around Pennsauken, from our publisher, our graphic designer, and all of our columnists and volunteer contributors, I wish you and yours a very prosperous start to 2017. May all of your last second New Year’s resolutions stay back in the wastelands of 2016 where they belong.