In the process of switching rooms with my youngest brother six months ago, I found a whole host of old photographs of us growing up. Entering a new decade now I’m thinking about those again, as I found (terrible) photographs of us entering 2000. My middle brother had me in an armlock on the floor (not much has changed there).
I wonder how many of us feel like we’re in an armlock as we enter this decade? How many of us will find excuses to not pursue our dreams, to hold back, to simply ‘get by’ this decade?
I don’t really have any specific resolutions (though if I did they’d probably echo my buddy Chris) for this year, or decade, but I know I want it to be one where I continue to push myself out of my comfort zones. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself.
Seth Godin wrote a post a few years ago that is deeply resonating with me.
In hindsight, the 1990s were the good old days. Yet so many people missed out. Why? Because it’s always possible to find a reason to stay put, to skip an opportunity, or to decline an offer. And yet, in retrospect, it’s hard to remember why we said no and easy to wish that we had said yes.
The thing is, we still live in a world that’s filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity — we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.
Are these crazy times? You bet they are. But so were the days when we were doing duck-and-cover air-raid drills in school, or going through the scares of Three Mile Island and Love Canal. There will always be crazy times.
So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand.
[Read the rest of the post here.]
So here’s to 2010: a crazy year. I’m going to be amazing this year. I’m also going to fail. But I’ll pick myself up, dust myself off, and go at it again. How about you?
I think we all go through this or something similar to this at the start of every year. And then our initial yearly enthusiasm for life fades away.
If we could start every day in the same way that we start every year, what difference would that make to our lives?
@ Dave: You’re absolutely right. I think it’d make a huge difference to our lives if we started every day as if it was a new year, I just wonder how to do that well? What would it take for me to treat tomorrow like a fresh start all over again? Thanks for the challenge – I think that’s something I’ll be looking at a lot over the next few months.