A New Year

“New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.”
-James Agate

To sum this one up, appreciate the difficult or those who provide it as tests to make you better, but be choosey of what you spend your energy on and who you spend your time with. As time goes on, I learn to appreciate challenges and failures as an opportunity to fill my bucket with more marbles (I used to collect as a kid), but only share my marbles with those that will value them. So as we end 2009 and enter a new decade (which to be honest I really hadn’t thought about until yesterday), what can we take from one successful or challenging year to step higher and achieve more than ever before.

Well here are some questions (shared from a friend) to help you with just that. As with any exercise, I find it ONLY valuable if you actually take some time, sit down, relax and write out the answers. That is my challenge to you…take the time to walk through your thought process and really think about what has been, and what has yet to be and how you will make 2010 happen for you and not too you.

What were some of your Magic Moments? What was magical and extraordinary?

What did you accomplish in 2009?

What were some of the most important decisions of this year for you?

What are some of the things from 2009 that you want to duplicate in 2010?

What did you hate in 2009? What was challenging this past year? What do you not want to have happen again?

Finally, write down everything you would like to accomplish in the next 5 years…and start prioritizing, bringing appropriate accomplishments forward into 2010.

A final point to conclude. When you stand at the end of the journey, that was 2010, looking on the precipice of 2011, what would you like to say about yourself in the last year, what are you proud to have accomplished and what did you learn about yourself as a person?

Respectfully yours,

Colin