First off, Happy New Year’s! With all the hustle and bustle and with all the excitement and celebrating have you thought to stop to examine you? By that I mean the way in which you currently live and the way in which you want to live life moving forward – Have you stopped to evaluate the way in which you structure or steward your time? If so, are you going to make any changes? For example, we all know that New Year’s Eve is a time when many celebrate with fireworks and make New Year’s resolutions, but do you really intend on putting in the required work to become a better version of you?
You see it’s easy to get excited to celebrate a new year. However, once the excitement of the day is over, life goes on. And it will go on by the choices we decide to make or the lack there of. As the reality is that with all the money, we may spend on New Year’s Eve celebrations or traditions, there’s not one thing in our life that will improve without us acting. We must act daily and with a level of consistency that causes us to endure despite how we feel or how long it takes. Think about the last New Year’s Eve you celebrated and the goals you made – Did you commit and conqueror your goals? For many that answer is no. Yes, I know COVID-19 was not part of your plan and has challenged most of us in ways we never imagined.
Still, the question I want you to reflect on is did you do what you said you would? Did you find a way to pivot and get the job done? Translation, when something is important enough to you, you will find a way to get it done, or you will find a way to make justifications. While that may seem harsh and hard to hear, the reality is we still had the same amount of time to accomplish whatever goals we set. Because though our schedules may have changed, time itself did not change. We did not suddenly loose hours in a day, or have a day of the week eliminated. Some of us found a way to pivot and succeed and some of us found it easier to admit defeat. So, your biggest task in making your dreams come true is to come up with a realistic measurable game plan to implement daily.
This time around I’m challenging you to recognize that you are valuable and to value investing in you. In no way am I minimizing your challenges and additional tasks, duties, and restrictions COVID-19 will have on your life this year. Still, when it’s all said and done, you must choose to invest in something and if that something isn’t you, then what are you living for? You see, beyond the celebratory moment of having fun in life or stressing over life’s setbacks and heartaches, I want to challenge you to think about your thought processes that lead you do to the things that you do. For example, many like to celebrate New Year’s Eve with fireworks and if you for one did, did you stop to examine the purpose of the fireworks? If so, did you consider the way in which you do things could be disruptive, toxic, or childish?
Please know that I’m not judging you or saying the way in which you celebrate is right or wrong. I’m challenging you to shift your point of view for a second. Think about the noise fireworks cause, particularly the streamers, black cats, and bombers – Do you really think after hours of hearing such noise it is not disruptive? Remember, you live amongst others and if you’re like most, despite the law stating not to, you celebrated within a residential area. Translation, everyone around you was not a part of your celebration and did not want to hear the noise created by the fireworks you chose to invest in.
Better yet, do you realize that depending on the type of fireworks you celebrated with, you voluntarily exposed yourself and others to carcinogens some of which can cause cancer? And if you’re caught off guard by me calling the fireworks an investment, I want you to be cognizant that anything you spend your money on and time doing is an investment. No, everything you spend your money on or time doing will not produce dividends or passive income. However, it is something that you paid for or spent part of your day involved in or with.
Therefore, there is a cost to you for every purchase and every moment you invest your energy in; and I hope you gain positive returns on your investments. I know some of you may be thinking what a way to sap my fun. But truly, if we can get to the root of why we do things and what it profits us long term, it will better equip us to recognize when we need to pivot in our lives to produce results that bring us peace, prosperity, and productively year-round, not just for a moment in time. Be willing to pause long enough to examine you and if you are where you want to be. If you’re not, I challenge you to commit to take steps to create the life that your desire through daily execution and dedication to doing and living life in a way that you hadn’t before.
~When you realize there’s more to life than what your eyes can see, you’ll live for more than the moment of what you feel~ Coach Sam
~Exalted Royalty~ A C. E. SAM COMPANY~
