Congratulations, you have completed another year. You have the opportunity to celebrate whatever that year means to you. You can celebrate another year of employment, another year in a relationship, another year of education or simply another year of life. Regardless of what is most important to you in that celebration there is one common thread. Whatever you have decided to celebrate you are looking forward to doing it better this year.
There are also some aspects of last year that you aren’t celebrating. Everything isn’t perfume and roses. You messed some things up last year. You may not have stayed in shape and put on a few unwanted pounds. You may have spent more money than you were able to bring in last year. You may have set some goals that you didn’t achieve. Regardless of what you aren’t celebrating there is also one common thread. You are looking forward to doing better this year
They want you to be better also.
On top of those two facts the majority of us also have outside responsibilities. Those are either given to us by our families, communities or employers. In each case they too are either celebrating or not celebrating your results from the previous year. They also share the same common thread. They want you to do better.
This is life as we all see it. There is no way to avoid it. So, you should embrace it. You simply have to do better. As you read this you may be waiting for something enlightening to be written. You already know the pressures that have been placed on you by yourself or others. You have been working to meet those expectations your entire life. You have no plans to ever stop working to do so. We can end this write up right now. You have been reminded and you now you can continue your efforts.
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not guaranteed.
However, I request that you keep reading. You should keep reading because here comes the enlightening part. The fact that this is a new year does not matter. The fact that you have things to celebrate or not celebrate does not matter. The fact that others have expectations of you does not matter. The only thing that matters is today. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. All you have is right now and that has a lot to do with your ability to be better.
In order to be better you have to take action today. You must at all costs keep a “what am I doing now?” mentality. You will be bombarded with choices today. Some of those choices will be very apparent. Some of those choices can easily go unseen. However, you will have choices nonetheless. What actions you chose to take will determine whether you become better or not.
To help make sure you are taking the right actions you should develop habits. Great habits that inherently make you better. By developing great habits, you eliminate the wasted effort of decision. This will leave extra energy for the unexpected decisions encountered during your day. The more energy you have the better you will be able to make good decisions.
The more energy you have the better choices you will make.
Therefore, developing great habits is the key to meeting the desire or expectation. First, the habits themselves will make you better as long as you choose the right ones. Second, by eliminating the need to choose you save much needed energy for other choices you can’t control. The more energy you have the better choice you will make.
With this knowledge you need take inventory of your daily habits. Do you have any? What are they? How do they make you better? To help you out here is an example of my list of habits. This is not to say that I have figured this out. This is only meant to give you a comparison and spur some thinking on your part.
This is a window into some of my daily habits. Of course, this only is a preview into the good habits. I have other habits that don’t make me better that I will keep to myself.
The point of this exercise is to get you to think about your habits. If you determine you have the right ones then you are well on your way to being better today. If you see that you lack some good ones you can now take the time to decide which new habits you will add today. You don’t have another year to evaluate your success. You have to make that evaluation now. This will allow you to make the changes today.
New year, no big deal.
A new year sounds like a big deal. It sounds like a great opportunity to evaluate your results. It is not. The big deal is today. The great opportunity is today. You have a desire to be better at everything that you do. The people you love and interact with also have an expectation for you to be better at everything that you do. To meet your desire and their expectation you must work on being better today.
Take this reminder and use it to evaluate your daily habits. You must either improve them, sustain them or develop them. Once you have great habits you will be well on your way to being better today. As always, I wish you the best and remind you to enjoy the journey.
With Gratitude,
Drew