Will you step into the new year with caution?
A year flies by so incredibly fast. When you’ve been around as long as I have you probably already know that making a long list of resolutions for the coming year can set you up for failure, and usually leads to disappointment…mainly in yourself.
You may feel that once again you’ve let yourself down by not following through with your list of numerous resolutions/goals. Often most of those same goals you had on your list last year, the year before and the one before, they end up being just a list of things that mostly never seem to be achieved. Maybe this year you vow that they are not going to go on another list for the coming year. Maybe it’s time to do something different!
Have a game plan
If I am truly honest I had a number of setbacks this year mostly due to health issues. I didn’t live my life fully this past year and I’m not really sure why I often shifted between mundane, meaningless tasks. I wasn’t clear on what was next for me.
I didn’t have a game plan for 2018. As things turned out it wouldn’t have exactly worked out the way I would have planned if I’d had one. Things came up I did not expect. Maybe this is where a good part of the answer lies, if we looked at life as a game and we played to win, things would surely work out differently.
After all who goes into playing any game with the intention if losing? You enter into it giving it your best focus and effort with the intention to win. So often in life we do things in a wishy, washy way we go at things without real clarity of the outcome we want, we lack focus with no real intention behind what we do. We are half hearted about a lot of things when we would be so much better off being intentional with just a few.
For obvious reasons I wanted an easy year, free of big challenge and chaos. And other than having surgery that required a hospital stay, for the most part that was true, it was free of those harder things but without any real direction of what I really wanted, my why and my purpose, it became just another year. After all I’ve experienced in life, “just another year” is certainly not my intention yet that’s exactly what happened.
Many of us look on with envy at all those pictures of New Year celebrations we see posted, but you’re not there being a part of it, people having fun. Then there are those lovely inspirational posts about renewal, new opportunities, abundance, gratitude and what lies ahead for you…do you look at them and think, if only?
Do something different
2019 will be very similar to 2018 for most. It will probably throw tough challenges in the way of many, and throw good things at others. It will show us the true colors of life sometimes dark and sometimes bright and beautiful. The world will continue to shock and amaze us, to make us sad, and make us smile.
The most important thing of all is the people we have in our life that will help each other to overcome the bad times and celebrate the wins. What most of us want and need are more wins whatever they may mean, good times, lots of laughter, to face and overcome adversity and obstacles, being able to come out the other side a wiser and stronger individual.
Face the challenges of a new year
We’ve been there before many times on the threshold of a new year, a clean slate, a new beginning. The promise of 365 days and 365 opportunities for change and getting it right this time. While being optimistic is a real necessity I personally think for many it’s more valuable to reflect and be curious on the past year. How did it play out for you, what happened that you are happy for, and what happened that made you feel sad?
Many will have lost a loved one someone who was a big part of their life. Trying to adjust to something this major is a real change. Beside losing someone close to you which is something totally out of your control, is there anything you can do to help fix a problem. Or maybe change something that didn’t workout the way you’d hoped.
At least try to avoid the same negative situations happening again in your future, not just in the next 365 days but permanently. What did you achieve, where did you go, who did you meet. How is your health, how are your relationships working, how about your finances? This is the real everyday stuff that life is made up of.
Be in the spirit of play, get in the game and make it your own year of change and growth.