Because if you’re making mistakes, you’re trying new things,
pushing yourself, changing yourself and your world.
You’re doing things you’ve never done before.” Neil Gaiman
I love each new year when it arrives. I consider it to be a gift, an opportunity for a fresh start. It’s an opportunity to pick myself up, dust myself off after a hectic holiday season, and start all over again.
I know some of us scoff at making resolutions. We’ve made them – and not kept them for so many years – we’ve finally given up.
That’s like giving up on life. “The clock is ticking, not in a morbid way, but in a
motivating way.” Who knows if I will be here to celebrate the next new year so I plan to make the best possible year of this one.
So often we wait for the perfect circumstances to do what we really want. We wait until we “retire,” until we have more money or time.
Do you know anyone who has more time than they used to? Plus, some people retire only to find they don’t have the health or the financial wherewithal to do what they want. I’ve been lucky. I’m way past retirement age and am doing what I love.
I consider that each day that I open my eyes and wake up is a wonderful day to celebrate. Steve Jobs said it well:
“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every
morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day
of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’
And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days
in a row, I know I need to change something.”
But, how about you?
What do you really want to do? What are you waiting for? Someday, when you’re sitting in a rocking chair, what will you wish you had done?
What do you do when you’re already successful, when you already have a meaningful and fulfilling life, but you’re ready to do something different?
How do you figure out what that is? How do you move forward with confidence and courage and EVOLVE your life instead of sticking with what’s known and familiar?
I hope that sometime this week you’ll sequester yourself somewhere for awhile to think about the year ahead.
I walk into the forest behind my house and sit under a huge old alligator juniper tree for my thinking time. I urge you to find or create your very own thinking place and consider:
· What do you want more of?
· What do you want less of?
· What do you want to stop, start, or change?
What is something NEW you want to try you’ve never done before?· What would make this a stellar year, one you look back on fondly because you met someone you wanted to meet, went somewhere you wanted to go, tried something you wanted to try that turned the lights on in your eyes?
The good news is that doing something new doesn’t require a lot of time. You don’t have to quit your responsibilities cold turkey and embark upon world travels. You don’t even have to leave home.
NEW can be done a few minutes here, a few minutes there. As Marcel Proust said, “Real discovery lies not in seeking new landscapes, but in developing new eyes.”
Ask yourself, “What would I be glad I did – even if it failed?” Then do whatever will make this a happy NEW year – in the best sense of the word.
“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the
same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller,
Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci and Albert
Einstein.” –Life’s Little Instruction Book
Today is the first day of a new year filled with opportunity and also the first day of the rest of your life. It’s up to you — and you alone — what you will do with it. For me, I plan to make it the best that it can possibly be. What about you?