New Years = New You!
The cliches, oh the cliches… but here we go. Another year gone in what felt like no time at all. When you look back on your year, and I will drive this point home if allowed, you NEED to look back on your year. It is much more valuable to first look back, then look forward, than to put the blinders on and simply look forward. No matter how the year went, there is knowledge back there that you need to use.
First – what DID you say you were going to do last year that did not come to fruition? Lets get a few on the table, and as memory joggers consider – health, weight, working out (fitness), JOY, energy, time utilization (did you waste more than is acceptable), JOY… did I mention JOY, work, performance at work, or perhaps limiting performance at work, which leads to family, finances, and a myriad of other possibilities. Consider those, and then consider what you set out to achieve this past year. How did you do? Or did you not actually set out to achieve anything in particular?
If not, or regardless of what happened relative to those goals, perhaps you are now perfectly primed to have some goals for 2019? If you have ever read any of my New Years posts from the past decade, you will see that I am a fan of setting goals at the new year… I believe God has gifted us with this time of year along with the feeling of renewal purposefully… that there is no coincidental feeling of a fresh start, but rather it is His plan to have you continually reflect, year after year after year at who you are, what you have done, what you will do and who you will become.
I often wonder is my mission today changing faster than it has before, am I being called into something different, and I believe the answer is yes. That there will be a time in the next few years where my next chapter will be revealed to me, and it will take me away from the chiropractic table more and more, and put me in front of a room. Teaching, like I do for the 60 Day Turnaround… or like I do with these posts. Perhaps you have had similar tugs, pulls on your heart that you are on a mission, and the only real question is whether you are on that mission or not.
Let me share with you some excerpts from an Andy Stanley sermon from years ago, that have become commonplace in my “Mission Management” workshop, which is one in my 60 Day Turnaround, and happens to be the one I enjoy teaching the most. All success tends to come from the right decision making attitude, and that attitude comes from a commitment that is not made lightly, ever. I like using the hashtag, #oneday… because it really only takes one day, one strong commitment, made from a series of questions and answers that lead us to the decision to do. To do whatever it takes to succeed, based on being called to whatever this task is, by the purpose that drives us.
Whoa! That might be a bit much to take in, but just slow it down, re-read it two times, and be sure you are ready to proceed.
Principles to live by –
There is a CUMULATIVE value to investing small amounts of time in certain activities over a long period. “Exercise, relationships, sports, etc.”
There is little value in any one investment of time into those activities. “Nobody wins a marathon the first time they try to run one, and it is rare that marriages last that happen before any dating (in our society).”
Neglect has a CUMULATIVE effect as well. “You gain weight and lose fitness if you sit on the sidelines (or the couch) too long.”
There are rarely any immediate consequences for neglecting single installments of time. “Stay at work late one night and you don’t notice any change in how your spouse views you… stay at work late every night for three years, and you might not have a spouse anymore.”
There is no cumulative value to the URGENT things that we allow to interfere with what is most important. “What have you done with all the days you missed your workouts? Show me the book that you wrote from all of that time you saved… or can you simply quote Seinfeld episodes?”
In the CRITICAL arenas of life, you cannot make up for lost time. You cannot cram for these. “7 dates in one week won’t save a marriage that has been neglected for 10 years.”
Such a huge set of principles… the kind that save lives and relationships, and change the world if used in the right ways. As you work through the goals for 2019, I would ask you to consider those principles, consider how they have impact on what you have done up until now, and what you will differently going forward.
I have had the privilege of teaching thousands of people through diet challenges over the last two decades, and there is one area that we rarely see success with. What happens after the success?
Meaning, when you get to the next level, and you are trying to figure out where to go now, what to do next, how to keep this success going… in most cases the answer is – we fail. I would say that about 40% of people who set out to get life change on a 30-60 day challenge, make it. And less than 10% of those people, keep it going long enough to secure life change for themselves, and the reason is simple.
When there are no rules, there are no rules.
And usually there are no rules at the beach.
Or at the Super Bowl party, or Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Birthdays, that special lunch that Suzy has been planning… the list is endless. Sure you can put on a good show for 60 days, but then what? Then most people lean back into tradition, and slip. But not an acceptable slip. An over the cliff edge into the cavern kind of slip.
Collect yourself. Take a moment and consider what you are meant to accomplish in 2019, and in that pause I would ask you to only take on what you are very serious about taking on. What are you going to stand for in 2019?
I have a lot on my plate, and as I sort it all out for 2019, I get this awesome feeling of fear and excitement… it is actually what I thrive in. I so recall that year that I added three chiropractic practices to the three I had, and it was fabulous. The opportunity for leadership, for growth, physically, mentally and spiritually.
This year I am going to witness so many things that cumulatively all fit to provide the opportunity for me to launch deeper into leading people into courageous steps in their own lives. As that is my current calling… to lead people into a place of confidence where fear is not squashed out, but rather overshadowed by courage.
Be well and be blessed! – Dr. E