After reading a few hundred tweets, blogs, text messages and emails about 2012 and how I should embrace the coming year, I thought I might as well throw my ramblings into the mix. I am somewhat against the idea of waiting until late December to think about making changes. Maybe I just realize that I have so much to work on that it really needs to be an ongoing process.
I regret to inform you that I don’t have any magical advice that will help you connect with your kids, start your own business, find that special someone or look great in a bikini. Based on that reading I mentioned earlier, I must be the only person that does not have the key to the wisdom of the ages. Perhaps I didnt buy the correct iThing or Android widget to understand all this stuff. That is okay. Someone (I guess that’s me) has to keep the bar low so everyone else can make it over without resorting to the Fosbury flop. We have had plenty of flops lately and can live without another (denial).
As New Years Eve loomed large on the horizon I thought about the things I would do differently in 2012. The initial list was pretty long and it got me down. So much to work on and so little time. For sure my 2011 featured some clangers, but so had the years before. Surely things would be different as 2012 would bring new opportunities to follow the yellow brick road. Surely.
A friend of mine often tells me that life is predetermined and that we cant do a lot to change how things are meant to be. Individual philosophies aside, I dont know that it really makes much of a difference because its the trying that matters. Chasing those resolutions we set in December is the fun part. If we accept the premise that what will be will be, would we still try so hard to make positive changes?
I like the curage factor required in all this resolution business. Medicated or not, standing up in front of friends, family and random strangers to proclaim a commitment to pursue a career as a circus performer takes some bravado. People remember and will certainly inquire as to the status of the lion taming act. Having done this many times (ridiculously lofty resolutions, not lion taming) I still have not learned to temper my resolutions.
Surrounded by new friends, old friends and family on New Years Eve, we laughed about past resolutions and held one another accountable for the marathons we did not run, the businesses we did not launch and the physical prowess that we did not achieve (the list was much longer). We talked a lot about what went wrong for the world in 2011 (this was a long list too).
When we finally made the move to disclose our resolutions for 2012 the usuals topped the list. We have all been down the utopian road of getting fit, becoming wealthy and finding true happiness a few times. At the very least we have done so vicariously.
The preverbal talking stick was making its way in my direction and I had nothing. As I did a mental sprint to grasp something that would allow me to escape scorn, I recognized that the answer was in how not what. I distilled my resolution down to one word. I chose “purpose” as my 2012 rally cry. In my case, purpose is the application of effort to the things that matter most. Purpose in how I spend time with my family and friends and purpose in how I pursue adventure with these same people. Purpose in how I grow my business and purpose in making the most of opportunities.
A day and a bit have gone by since my resolution and I still feel like I made the right call. My next purposeful adventure is building lunch for a group of friends coming by in an hour. I can only hope they have a collective resolution of extreme tardiness…
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