In a few days, the clock will strike 12 and a new calendar year will begin.
In most every culture, the new year signals rebirth, cleansing, and a beautiful freshness. It’s a new cycle brimming with possibilities, fear, and expectations.
But what usually happens is the same thing, just one year in the future: we still have the same problems, the same crappy job (or whatever example you can think of), and the same goals we have yet to achieve.
And it scares the shit out of me.
One year from now, you’re going to be one year older. What are you going to do?
Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, said his parents used to tell him that. It held a powerful message:
No matter what — in one year — you’re going to get older anyway. Time will pass anyway. What are you going to do in the meantime?
On December 31, 2014, I’m going to be 27 years old whether I like it or not. And when I recap the year that passed, what will I have done? What accomplishments did I achieve? What challenges did I face? What fears did I overcome?
No More Goals
My “goal” in 2014 is to stop setting goals. Instead, I want to craft “themes.”
Goals focus on the outcome. Themes focus on the behaviors — the things you can control.
And in 2014, the theme I want to cultivate is experimentation: testing a lot of ideas and failing even more. I want to risk big and follow success’s script.
Fortune favors the bold.
— Virgil, Aeneid
Over two thousand years ago, the Latin poet, Virgil, wrote those words. Two thousand years later, people still quote him. Maybe it’s more than just a cliché; maybe it’s the truth.
And if that’s the true script for success, why the hell am I disobeying his creed?
Enough talk. Let’s do.
What’s your theme for the next year?
I’ve been stressing far to much about gettin things right and I have lost all the enjoyment in what I do, in fact I’ve been really sucking at it and doing so so little work. My theme is to enjoy it again. Stop looking for success and let it find me. Also I’m going to run a half marithon this year.
So I guess my theme is impres my self first.
Qoute of the day.
“Impress yourself first” by Garry Hannah
Well said. I found this and thought you might like it:
“No one reads a comic strip because it’s drawn well.
It has to be drawn well enough, not perfectly.
No one goes to a rock concert because the band is in tune. They have to be close enough to not be distracting, but being in tune isn’t the point.
No one buys a house because every floorboard is hammered in at the six sigma level of perfection. They have to be good enough, and better than good enough is just fine, but perfect isn’t something that’s going to overwhelm location, beauty, peace of mind and price.
As creators, our pursuit of perfection might be misguided, particularly if it comes at the expense of the things that matter.”