December 31, 2009

We are on the cusp of year end and about ready to spring into 2010.  Maybe not spring, but go to sleep tonight— for those who are not partying— wake  up, and it’s January the 1st.

I’m sure, after this year of economic downturn and accompanying layoffs, that people will have hopes for a better year ahead: jobs for those who have lost theirs, more work for those who don’t have quite enough. It’s happened before, so why not?

Every New Year, I hear people talking about making resolutions: to lose weight, read more, take better care of one’s health, and so on. It seems that the joke is often on the resolution maker who quits the resolution in mid-winter after feeling frustrated with setbacks. I’ve been among them, but I’ve also been successful too, one most notably to read the Bible through in a year.

  So my question is: Are goals any less stressful?

Goals involve a work in progress, sometimes with a moveable post at the end. My business goal,  for example, to do better and more focused strategic marketing, means that I have to do some additional planning and work. If I work at my plan, reassessing it from time to time and making changes accordingly, I should come out ahead. I’m hoping too that the economists are right in predicting an upturn, even if it will be slow.

Taking it one step further, set  goals that are measurable  and achievable. Hey, even some of those are elusive at this moment, but I’m working on it, paying attention to what other successful entrepreneurs do, and what people in similar businesses have accomplished. 

Turning back to reflective thoughts, more in tune with this blog, I invite you to consider these  New Year’s quotes and to reflect on them too.

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.  ~Oprah Winfrey

Was Oprah talking about resolutions that are broken or an opportunity to try those goals again and learn from them? I think she means: Go into the New Year feeling good about it, feeling hopeful that things will work out, and knowing that others struggle with the same issues.

Now one from T. S. Eliot

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
~ “Little Gidding

Eliot was an innovator with his poetry, even if he encountered resistance to his style. I like this reference to new language for a new year, a different voice for another year.  Maybe I like it because I enjoy poetry, but it expresses some positive thoughts that anyone could take note of.

One more quote:

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

This  quote by Pierce sounds encouraging and forgiving of past mistakes.  It whispers goals and starting fresh. Think I’ll pin this one up somewhere to be reminded. I like them all, really. Maybe I’ll put each one in a different mirror to remind myself as the New Year opens.

How about you? Will it be resolutions or goals? Can you name them?