As it comes to the end of yet another exciting, transformative year, I find myself reflecting. Sometimes, I cringe thinking of some of the things that I did or said this year (don’t we all have some of those moments?), and other times, I find myself smiling with pride, thinking “yeah, I totally got through that”. Truthfully, I love New Years.
A new year is a new chance, a new beginning, and another chapter. It’s a chance to step into the foundations that you laid down this year, and to plan the next level of adjustments and moves. But I guess the real question, in all your contemplating and thought, is are you satisfied with how 2019 played out? I won’t ask if it was everything you hoped of, because nothing ever goes according to plan. But perhaps that’s the best news.
The plans and the goals that I personally set were met to some capacity, but not all of them. Some of them postponed, others adjusted, and others put to the side for another time. It’s not a matter of giving up, but a matter of changing priorities, and what I like to call growing pains.
Growing pains are like the terrible twos of your path to success, as I think of them. When you’re in the middle of the pipeline and things seem dire at times, you tend to get irritable, enduring things you thought you were done and over with. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you sit back and think “are you kidding me”. But then you have to push forward, through whatever emotional or mental anguish it costs. Because the reward is much greater than the challenge itself.
In lieu of my typical pattern of setting goals every single December, right before the ball drops in Times Square and around the world, I have a new one this year: practice gratitude in everything I do, and thank my growing pains for showing up. Be thankful that I have been presented these challenges, and that they exist to push me, propel me forward, and to show me that I am made of much more than I thought possible.
So what will your goals be? Will you set goals? Did you meet yours this year? No matter the case, just remember that the only thing standing in between you and your goals is your attitude about your challenges. Go get ’em, tiger! Rock the socks off of 2020!
