Tell me if this sounds familiar. A close friend or relative is complaining about an obstacle that they have in life: problems at work, spousal frustrations, backstabbing friends, etc. You listen attentively and politely. You offer productive and easy-to-follow advice. You friend looks at you like you have overstepped some boundaries. They either tell you that your advice wouldn't work and launch into more complaining or they are downright offended that you offered unwelcome advice. And no one ever follows your advice. Ever.

I just finished reading a book called "Pomodoro Technique Illustrated" by Staffan Nöteberg (http://www.amazon.com/Pomodoro-Technique-Illustrated-Really-Minutes/dp/1934356506). I guess it's a little premature to say that it's changed my life, but in my first week of truly implementing the method, I find myself on Thursday and have already accomplished more than I had mentally apportioned to get done for the whole week. A couple of months ago, I had read the free PDF by the original author and decided to test it out, but in typical fashion I sort of did it half-ass.

I'm noticing a trend over the years here. My resolutions are shrinking. I used to have a list of about 10 things for the year ahead. Many of them were very grandiose. Now I have a few things that I'd like to accomplish - and none of them are particularly exciting. Is this a sign of age? Is it knowledge that I'm only going to accomplish about five or so of the things anyway?

Today was my first acupuncture session. I had pulled my back out about a week and a half ago. I told myself in Africa that it was time to try acupuncture, but I hadn’t gotten around to it. So with my back out, I decided it was time to make an appointment and try it. I had heard various stories of people going to acupuncture and the needles having a visceral and sudden effect on their body. Sometimes it was described as a jolt of electricity, sometimes it was described as a sudden withdraw of tension. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

I know a lot of people that have had a really bad 2017. Myself included. I am genuinely excited about 2018. I don't expect that circumstances will necessarily be great (Trump is still president), but I feel like I'll be great regardless of the circumstances. Here's my plan.