We all have resolutions every year and they’re ambitious: to lose the weight, to get the promotion, to do the thing. Whatever our goals are, we’ve usually given up by the end of January of by the end of Quarter 1 (March 31 for you normal people.)
And we settle back into the life that is comfortable but not wholly satisfying, one where we know we’re not doing everything we want to and actually could accomplish.
For the last few years, I’ve picked a word every year to guide me and they’ve proven useful. I know in my gut as soon as I’ve found the word so I start the work by figuring out why that word for that year.
My word for 2019 is “Icarus” and if you’re not into mythology the way I was as a teenager, you might wonder what it means. If you learned the story in school, you might be thinking “wait, isn’t the moral of the story of Icarus not to fly too high? Are you trying to justify settling?”
Yes, and no. You’ve only paid attention to half the story of Icarus. As a reminder:
Icarus is the son of Daedalus, a famous craftsman. Icarus and his father were prisoners of King Minos and to escape, Daedalus crafted them wings made of feathers and wax.
He taught Icarus how to fly and warned him not to fly too high, which would cause the wax to melt, nor too low, which would cause the feathers to get wet with sea water.
https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Icarus/icarus.html
So in 2019 my plan is to fly.
Not too high so that the wax melts (growing too fast for my business to be sustainable) and not to low so the feathers get wet (taking the easy, lazy “just enough” route), but just high enough to see the view and go for long distances.
Do you know your word for 2019? Do you know your goals?
Tag me on twitter @amnashamimnyc and let me know.