Since the day after Christmas I’ve
been thinking about this, my first posting of 2016. I’ve spent weeks toying with my own “Top 10
Ways To Make 2016 The Best Year Ever!” but eventually I realized I had my focus
out of whack. I couldn’t suggest ways to
plan for 2016 until I’d made sense of 2015.
The simple truth is that before you
plan for the future, you have to make sense of the past. There’s no point in making New Year’s
resolutions until you acknowledge the good (and not so good) of the previous
year.
To help me reflect on the past year
and so get my bearings for this new year, I rummaged through a journal book of
quotes I’ve collected beginning from college days. Here
are sixteen quotes that have got me thinking about how I’ve lived the past year
and that inspire me to make 2016 a truly “new” year.
1.
Courage is not the absence of
fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon
What was I most afraid of in 2015?
What is more important to me than that fear? Can that “something more
important” be a resolution for 2016?
2.
The two most important days in
your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Mark Twain
Did last year help me better understand my “why”? Am I willing to embrace that “why?” and let it
guide all my decisions this year?
3.
There are no wrong turns, only
unexpected paths.
Mark Nepo
What wrong turn did I make in 2015? Am I still stuck in that wrong turn or have I
found unexpected opportunity?
4.
Sometimes ‘courage’ is the quiet
voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
What do I need to try again this year? And how can I try in a different way?
5.
To grow is to change, and to have
become perfect is to have changed often.
John Henry Newman
Did I change in any way during 2015? Did that change help me go about my work and
my life or did that change trip me up?
6.
When we exist without thought or
thanksgiving we are not men, but beasts.
M.F.K. Fisher
Who and what were the gifts of 2015? Did I recognize and give thanks for
them? How can I continue to honor those
gifts in this new year?
7.
Don’t ask what the world needs;
ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is
more people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman
What made me come alive in 2015?
How can I do more and better of what makes me come alive?
8.
Procrastination is the fear of
success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they
know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a
responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the
'someday I'll' philosophy.
Denis Waitley.
What projects, goals and dreams did I procrastinate on in
2015? Why was I afraid? Have I already come up with new excuses to
continue to procrastinate in 2016?
9.
You can’t be everything to
everyone, but you can be something great for someone.
Arielle Jackson
Who was I “great” for in 2015?
Who can I be “great” for this year?
10. There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Zora Neal Hurston
Was 2015 a year of clarity and direction or was I more uncertain
about where and how to devote my energies?
Which do I want this year to be?
11. Most people don’t know this, but it’s easier to go from failure to
success than from excuses to success.
John Maxwell
Did I have more excuses than failures in 2015? Have any of those excuses helped me in
reaching long term goals? How do those
excuses feel now at the start of 2016?
12. Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power.
Those rewards create almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are
hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that
our lives matter, so that the world will be at least a little bit different for
our having passed through it.
Rabbi Harold Kushner
So how did I make the world a different place in 2015? Are those ways worth continuing in 2016?
13. A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
Duke Ellington
What were the problems I encountered last year? Did my perfectionism complicate the problem
or did I dig deep into my best? Do I
view a problem as a “chance” or a “curse”?
14. Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be
complete only when we are giving something away; when we sit at the table and
pass the peas to the person next to us we see that person in a whole new way.
Alice Waters
What were the “peas” I passed olong last year? What was my criterion for hospitality? What other kinds of peas can I pass on this
year?
15. My whole life changed when I decided not just what I’d like to do,
but when I decided who I was committed to being and having in my life.
Tony Robbins
Who was in my life last year?
Why did I push away certain people?
How can I invite old friends and new folks into my life this year?
16. There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle
around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on
end. I won’t have it. There is something deadening about going through
life cautiously.
Annie Dillard
How did I diddle around in 2015?
What itsy-bitsy parts of last year can I turn into something new and
dare I say, “grand” this year?
I know that what I need to resolve
for 2016 rests in my answers to these quote-inspired questions.
I also know that there’s a host of
reasons for why I/we don’t keep resolutions, just ask Drs. Drew, Oz and
Phil! However, I think one reason is
that I/we are afraid of what would happen if we did keep a resolution.
Ultimately, a new year’s resolution
demands that we embrace the truth that we are worthy and deserving of success
and well being.
Here’s to a new year that’s truly wonderful
in all ways new!
No comments:
Post a Comment