By Frances Murphy “Toni” Draper,
AFRO CEO and Publisher
If a doctor gave you 48 hours to live, what would you do? How would you react?
Who would you spend your last days, hours, minutes, or seconds with? Friends? Family? Co-workers? Complete strangers?
Would you spend time planning your funeral, putting your affairs in order, traveling, pursuing a hobby or lamenting your missteps and mishaps? Would you change your status on social media, (or just delete all your social media accounts), confide in close friends, forgive those who have hurt you or hide under your covers waiting to breathe your last breath?
Maybe you’d give your kids deep hugs or begin cleaning the clutter out of a closet or write a blog about the importance of maintaining your health or produce a podcast about your life. Or maybe you’d just binge on your favorite series (or favorite food) and hope for the best. Many of you, I’m sure, would begin to pray.
Most of us, if pressed to do so, can come up with a long list of things that we would do if we thought we only had a few days left on earth. We know exactly what these things are and– like the proverbial tin can– these are the things we have kicked down the road for years. Some things on your “to do” list (like the ones on mine) have been there a very long time. And many of us wait until this time of year to start (or stop) certain activities.
I have decided (after many years of making and breaking hundreds of New Year’s resolutions) to stop making lists of things “to do” without also developing a measurable plan of action. It’s easy, for example, to emphatically declare that I’m going to lose 10 pounds or get more sleep or write that book. But just “saying” it or even writing it down, does not a plan make.
This is the year that every prospective task is accompanied by a plan – even if it’s only a sentence or two. And this is the year that I am more selective than ever about doing only those things that bring value to people and causes that I truly care about. For as the late Benjamin Mays so eloquently declared:
I have only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to me
to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute,
but eternity is in it.
This edition, Becoming Your Best Self, is full of articles that help us with our “minute” – from “‘No’ is a Sentence” to “Resolve to Get More Rest in 2023,” “You Are What You Eat” and “Improve Your Focus.” A special thanks to Rev. Dorothy Boulware, Alexis Taylor and the entire editorial team, as well as our production and advertising teams for producing an outstanding special edition for readers to keep handy in 2023!
Merry Christmas and all the best for a prosperous New Year – one minute at a time.
