Starting The New Year

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
~ Mark Twain

Happy New Year! New Year, new week, tomorrow is another day. There’s something about the recurrence of time cycles that gives us hope that the next go-round we get to do it differently. Even if we liked the last one. Why do people wildly celebrate the advent of a new year? Heck, who doesn’t relish the chance for a fresh start?

What does a fresh start mean to you? The thought that the past does not equal the future has always been an empowering one for me. No matter what my history/experience has been, I can choose to do it differently now. While it’s said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior while expecting different results, changing your behavior in familiar circumstances can in fact produce new results. The key is to understand what can change and what cannot – and the you part of the equation can always change.

I love New Year’s Eve. I’m not much of a reveler anymore, but I love the ritual of getting a fresh start. It’s an opportunity for me to review the goals I set for myself last year, take satisfaction in my accomplishments, and to notice where I missed the mark. Hey – win some, lose some, try to win more than you lose. And now last year’s game is done, and we get a clean slate on which to create our lives in 1999.

“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
~ Ray Bradbury

Some of my goals this year include becoming MUCH more technologically adept; taking better care of myself on every level; at least doubling the number of clients I coach; making meditation and yoga a regular part of my life; and developing several new coaching models to share with all of you. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about this stuff for awhile – it’s just that New Year’s gives me a framework within which to formalize it. That puts a deadline on my goals – a crucial distinction that elevates a goal from mere dream status.

What are your goals for 1999? How do they fit in with your long term path? Do the things you spend your time and energy on a daily basis bring you closer to where and who you want to be?

I’m also reminded that another year has zoomed by, and my window to try new adventures has closed a little more. It encourages me to take risks, to dare to pursue all that I want and all that I want to be. The essence I take from Twain’s and Bradbury’s quotes highlighted in this issue is that I don’t want to wonder in my last moments, “what if I’d only……I really wish I’d tried to….” Risks that seem so huge in the present moment over a lifetime’s perspective will blend into the fabric, and simply be “that’s what I was doing then.”

So get out there and take some risks in your life. Go after what you want. A safe life (yawn!) will not test the limits of who you might expand to be. You don’t want to miss that, do you? While I’d never encourage being foolhardy (planner that I am), I do encourage you to speak your deepest desires, develop a strategy to pursue them (with your coach, for instance!), and believe in yourself enough to go after them. I’ll bet you get most of what you want.

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