Am I just being an old fuddy-duddy because April fool's day is the one day that I most dislike of the year? With all the infantile tricks and clever pranks, and now including the 'virtual' pranks, I'm sorry but must admit, 'I'm all 'fooled' out! I can take a good joke as well as anyone else, as long as someone isn't truly offended or hurt in the process. However, after all the jokes and pranks are over for this year, allow me just a moment to explain what I would rather 'celebrate' on April 1st and see if you will agree.

I would like to change or redirect the emphasis off of jokes and pranks and in turn mark the first day/week of April as the end of the first leg (quarter) of the year. Are you up to date on the goals and aspirations you set for yourself this year? Back during New Year's, you and I as well as most people make a concerted effort to come up with goals and aspirations for the up coming year. So how is your progress so far? Are you ahead or behind where you wanted to be? After all, please remember, you are the one who set this progress plan and not another. Are you being fair or unfair to yourself with regard to your achievements so far this year? I'm afraid I am a bit of a slacker and behind where I wanted to be. So I have set a new course, after a few tweaks, to catch me up and to put me where I would rather be come the next leg. You see no matter where you are you must first know where you are and know where you wanted to be, only then you can make adjustments and any tweaks. I also wish to point out that this process need not be a brutal tongue-lashing giving way to another means of achieving mental depression and/or a truly negative outlook. No, the only way to know how to achieve those things that we have deemed important and a necessary source of personal happiness is to plot our progress and make adjustments when necessary.

I can see a truly humorous disposition underlining all of this. One can choose to either be the ‘negative Nelly’ who exclaims on New Year's Eve, 'no way, you're not going to be able to do that'. Or one can choose to be the negative one who points out the fact that we just passed the first leg of the year and is so very bold to ask, 'are you on track'? With this discomposure in mind, I understand that I can't win either way and so I resort to allowing the chips to fall where they may. I would rather have faith in another and attempt to help keep them moving in the direction that will put them closer to the achievement of their own goals and aspirations and personal happiness.

There is one very important distinction between the various quarters or legs of the year, with regards to time left or available to achieve goals. It is this distinction that places a certain amount of accentuation on the quarters. One must understand that now, just after the first leg or quarter, is the most perfect time to chart progress to see if anything needs tweaking in order to stay 'on track' to goal achievement. Now is the time to take corrective actions and adjustments in order to not be so much further off track next quarter. Now there is plenty of time to still achieve what you wished for back during the New Year. Soon though, if one is too far off track come again next quarter, it means re-adjustment not of the means or methods of achievement but rather the adjustment and a scaling back, (compromising and making concessions) of one’s goals and desires that leads to personal happiness. No one wants to make concessions in their happiness or in the happiness of their family. Therefore it is critical to understand that now, just after the first quarter, means adjustment to the process and/or methods of goal achievement, but not a concession of achievements and happiness as would be the case if one is allowed to remain off track and behind in achievements come the next quarter of the year.

If you understand this distinction as well as the time left to achieve between the quarters, can you understand why I favor the fact that it is far more important to chart one's progress of goal achievement rather than to come up with this year's most clever prank? Those who constantly force themselves to make concessions in their overall happiness and desires because they continue to fail to chart their progress as well as fail to follow a plotted course, are the most unhappy people. These people are the ones who are so negative that their extreme negative attitudes cause even more displeasure and unhappiness to be heaped on them. All of a sudden they are negativity magnets and it appears as though they are truly cursed. Nothing ever seems to work out right for these poor people and it is truly best to leave the helping of these people to professionals, so that their extreme negativity and contagious behaviors don't rub off on to you! There is no harm in admitting that professionals are needed in certain situations and we all can't be experts at everything. Some people simply need new and various methods to help them keep from becoming the very cause of the three D’s, disgraced, disgusted, and dishonored.

Lastly, after this year's pranks and jokes are over, stop and ask yourself if you are achieving what you wished you would back during New Year's. Are you on track to achieving what will bring pleasure to you and/or your family? If you aren't, for whatever reason, it doesn't matter; you just need to then make adjustment and tweaks in the methods, before you must make concessions in your wishes and happiness. You wouldn't allow any other person in the world to keep you from achieving all that you wish, so then don't even allow yourself to be the one who forces and causes you to make adjustments in your overall happiness and pleasure.