“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
What is your dream or goal for 2021? Do you even have one? Do you plan to make any resolutions?
I wrote a whole series on resolutions a while back. Do I like them? Do I make them? Go back a read the series to find out what I really think (you can find it by scrolling to the bottom of this page).
As I continue through the years it really comes down to the same old story for me or maybe I should say stories. At least multi part stories or parallel stories taking place at the same time. What are these stories? The basic one is that I force myself into a corner in my brain to think about the last year and the new year to come. I ask myself all those boring questions…
What did I do or accomplish this year?
Did I complete any of my goals?
Did I stop doing the things I said I would?
Did I start the things that I thought would make for a better life and a better me?
Did I add more value like I swore I would?
Did I do more of this and less if that?…
Over and over, year after year as I inch closer to midnight on 12/31 I wonder what will be different in the coming year. I can just ramble and make resolutions that sound grand but does any of that matter when I reflect on how I plundered along through another year? Simply putting things off for another day as I tend the “must dos” on my to do list that never ends.
You might think after all this time on this planet and starting and running businesses for nearly two decades that I would learn that tomorrow never comes and the to do list never goes away. Every three items that are crossed off produce five more “important” tasks.
The reality is the world will not stop if I choose to let that to do list go for a day, even a week or more. I have procrastinated and ignored “critical” tasks many times over the years and everything around me remained intact. I am not that important or powerful. My tasks are minuscule in the grand scheme of everything.
The other reality is, I exaggerate a bit. There was a time that I really believed in resolutions and thought I had to make them every year. What I realized for myself was that it was too rushed and insincere. I just went through the motions but it was pretty meaningless.
So, do I believe in resolutions and will I be making any? I do, but over the years I have to believe that it is more than just spouting off some things I plan to change about myself, dropping bad behavior and starting some new and improved good behaviors. It is more than saying this year I plan to do more of this and less of that. I believe in the essence of resolutions. I believe my life is exponentially better when I try to do and be better on a daily basis in all areas of my life
No more excuses for me, that is the parallel story. I am in control of my own life. If I want a better life I must do what is necessary to make that happen. The spoken words of resolutions may sound great and add a pleasant exclamation point on a nice gathering 2 minutes to midnight on 12/31, but if I don’t follow through with action everything I said is meaningless. What that means to me is that if I want my life to be better, I have to write a better story and play the lead role. If I want my businesses to do better, my relationships to be better, my health and wealth to be better than I have to get off my butt and the things necessary to make the change happen.
As I write this on 12/30/2020, with Jimi Hendrix in the background singing about cross town traffic I ask if 2021 be the year that I pick my guitar “Izabella” and start playing again? I don’t know. What I do know is that if I want to play guitar again and re-light the greatest passion from my past I will have to pick her up, dust her and play her. Thinking or writing about it will not make it happen.
To close this thought out for 2020, I do not know what my specific resolutions will be but at this moment I do know there are plenty of things I want to do better personally and professionally. To make any a reality I know that I have to make a conscious effort to do so and take daily action because nothing happens overnight. And most of all I need to be present because no change happens in the past or future. If I only take one thing from 2020 it is how important the present moment is. Life is precious and we never know when some crazy virus will come and uproot everything and possibly take one’s life away.
To 2020 I say, good riddance, thank you for the lessons and here’s to something better to come…That I will actively help to create today.
Happy New Year!
Talk Soon,
Kevin W @LEAP272
Owner-Operator
You have to leap if you want to live
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