The Slice: One small step for a ‘New You’

The Slice hereby challenges you to fix some aspect of your life next week.

Are you up for it?

Here’s the deal. Remember how people used to say, “If we can put a man on the moon, how come we can’t …”?

Sure. Well, Sunday is the anniversary of the July 16, 1969, liftoff of Apollo 11, the first space flight that featured charisma-challenged men tromping around on the lunar surface.

It strikes me as the perfect day to launch a new regimen of some sort, whether it’s a fitness plan, a TV boycott or a renewed commitment to self-assertion.

But you know how it is with these life-change schemes. We might start out strong. But a lot of us tend to see our resolve wilt and our dedication peter out.

So here’s the beauty part.

The self-improvement program you kick off Sunday will have to last only until Thursday, which happens to be the anniversary of the actual moon landing.

Are you with me?

You’ll start your “New You” campaign on blast-off day and declare “Mission Accomplished” on landing day.

Uh, feel free to play with that wording.

But hey, who among us couldn’t stick with something for four or five days? (It’s OK to take the fifth.)

Now all you need to do is figure out which of your imperfections to address.

If you’re like me, you have plenty of choices.

I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to change about yourself. But just to get you thinking, here are half a dozen categories to consider.

1. Fitness/weight: You’re not going to safely lose a ton or get into Olympian shape in less than a week. But you could try cutting back to two pork servings a day or getting up early and going for a walk five times.

2. Interpersonal relations: You could work on your listening skills or stop calling your sister’s boyfriend “weasel face” in e-mails.

3. Driving behavior: You could devote the five days to achieving a state of serenity behind the wheel and rising above the urge to ram.

4. TV viewing: Embrace “less is more.” Or, when someone else has the remote, resist the temptation to bark out channel-change requests/demands. (Hey, it’s just for a few days.)

5. Office politics: Can you go almost a week without saying anything behind someone’s back?

6. Overall personal excellence: You could ask yourself over and over, “How would I handle this if I were the person I aspire to be?”

Like I said, it’s up to you.

But who knows. If you can cope with a positive change for a few days, maybe the new behavior will start to become a habit.

Nah. Probably not. But, a week from now, feel free to tell me all about what you decided to do and how it went.

Good luck.

“Today’s Slice question: What’s your secret technique for detecting that someone is lying?