If you can't be optimistic at the beginning of the year, I'm not sure you can ever be optimistic.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/image38.png"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1491" title="image38" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/image38-300x225.png" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>It's certainly easy to be negative when you're looking back on a bad year. I don't remember which year it was that Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain referred to as an <em>annus horribilis</em>; I think it might have been the year Chuck and Di got divorced, but I'm not sure. My friend Mick thought she had said <em>anus horribilis</em>, which is a whole different kettle of worms.

At any rate, we all have bad years in our lives, and most of us don't anticipate them in advance. It just isn't human nature.

There certainly are years I will remember as bad ones, and without giving it really serious thought, I probably would have put 2011 fairly high on that list. Almost all of the progress I made in getting into shape in 2010 was lost in 2011, and as the New Year starts, I find myself starting all over again.

<em>Cue Mel and Tim ...</em>

Ah, "Starting All Over Again," another one of those '60s songs that no one remembers except me, Mel and Tim.

But I wrote about 2011 yesterday, as fast away the old year passed.

Now it's 2012, and some great things are going to happen this year. For one thing, I'm going to get back into shape. For another, I'm going to finish my book, which has essentially been on hold -- two-thirds finished -- for most of the last year. For a third, I'm going to see to it that Nicole becomes healthy and happy again. Heck, we might even take a cruise together.

Years ending in "2" have been a mixed blessing for me, but one thing tops everything else. It was 20 years ago that Nicole and I met, fell in love and got married after knowing each other only 51 days. This November, God willing, we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

I've got a feeling it's going to be a really good year.

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