In approximately 270 days, the world as we know it will reach it’s 2000th year. While that is quite a momentous achievement, it also sparks the possibility of doom. While the dawn of the new millennium brings hope and endless possibilities as we as human beings enter the 21st Century, many of us are quietly preparing for, as it has become known, the “Y2K Millennium Bug.”

As the year 2000 creeps ever closer, people all over the world are trying desperately to kill the millennium bug before 11:59:59 on December 31, 1999. People everywhere are doing everything from re-configuring computer systems, to buying bottled water and flashlights, to telling everyone to “repent” before the end of the world.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, let me clue you in: According to “the experts” (whoever they are) when the year 1999 becomes 2000, many computerized systems; from major companies, to the stock market, to banks, will suffer a system-wide computer crash because all computers enter dates into their networking systems on a MM-DD-YY system. (For example, I was born on January 24, 1972, the computer would read my birthday as 01-24-72) The problem is that many major computer systems are not “Y2K Compliant,” meaning that when someone enters 01-01-00, the computer will read this date as 1900 instead of 2000, and crash, hence the aforementioned disaster.

So people who are frightened of this “Y2K Millennium Bug” are expecting banks to lose accounts, the stock market to cease function, and everything from electricity to subways to television to stop working, in other words, a breakdown of basic social society. How ironic that this should be on the horizon of the long anticipated 21st Century, when technology was predicted to run most of life’s daily necessities.

Me, I’m not freaking out over the “Y2K Millennium Bug,” I’m using the concept to my advantage. I have decided to spend the next 270 or so days to make myself and my life Y2K Compliant, I suggest you do the same.

Let me explain: I bet that if you sat down and made a list entitled, “Things I Have Yet To Resolve” or “Unfinished Business,” there would be a lot of things on that list, things like an outstanding bill, a person you were supposed to “touch base” with about a project you are going to start working on, or a family member you haven’t spoken to in a while. We all have unfinished or unresolved stuff in our lives that we say we’ll “get to” when we get the chance or when we find the time. Well, time’s ticking away people, and if you want to kill this “Y2K Millennium Bug,” the best place to start is at home.

I have made a vow that all of my unfinished business will be cleaned up by the end of this millennium. So when I enter the year 2000, I won’t have to spend the 21st Century fixing 20th Century problems, I will have a whole new century to make new ones.

So, what are you waiting for? Tick, tick, tick…