Will 2020 Be Your New Beginning?

There's something so beautiful about new beginnings. New beginnings are like a reset button. New beginnings are filled with possibilities and hope.

Babies learning to walk are amazing to watch. I don't believe the thought ever enters their minds that they won't walk. They fall down countless times before they succeed. Their parents and family are so full of hope for them and continuously encourage them to "Come on!" and "Keep trying!"?

A new opportunity, a new day, a new month, a new year, a new decade are all like those parents and family, continuously encourage us to, "Come on!" and to "Keep trying!" If we can have the mindset of a baby learning to walk thinking, "How will I do this?" or "Hmmm . . . That didn't work, so let me try this!" we will eventually "Walk."

I am greeting the year 2020 with the fresh determination and intention to every day, figure out, "How will I do this?" That is a mindset that is FULL of possibility!

At times getting started on a new journey can seem ominous. Where will I . . . ? How will I . . . ? When will I . . . ? Questions, doubts, fears, voices inside our heads as well as those around us try to block us from taking that first step or that giant leap of faith forward. But once the costs are counted, and the decision to go for it is made, "one day" becomes your "Day one." Put your stake in the ground. Let today be your Day 1.

How many times have we contemplated doing something great only to talk ourselves out of it because it seemed daunting or challenging? At other times we've seen the opportunity, thrown caution to the wind and just went for it. Which scenario left you saying to yourself, "Wow. I am SO glad I did that!"? When an open door is before us, our contemplation should always be, "Am I going to regret letting this chance pass me by?"

My mother always said, "Nothing beats a failure but a try!" As a young woman, I was offered a job as a Research Assistant at a large corporation. I bewailed the fact that I didn't know how to do the job. My Mom's advice? "Take the job. By the time they find out you don't know what you're doing, you'll already be doing it!" That woman had the wisdom of a sage. And you know what, she was absolutely right.

Have you ever felt daunted by a project, job, or vision for something you wanted to do because you thought yourself underqualified for the task? Follow my mother's wise advice. "Take the job." Then study, read, practice, and prepare yourself. "By the time they find out you don't know what you're doing, you'll already be doing it!"

Success means different things to different people. The one thing everyone understands, though, is that all roads do not lead to Rome. Two people could both follow the exact same path and end up at totally different destinations. There is no such thing as a "Go from point A to get to point B" way to get to success. It's more like, "Go from point A to point E to point L . . . no wait . . . go back to point C!" You're headed down one direction and may suddenly find yourself in a totally different place - one that's actually better than you had anticipated - or not.

Regardless of the course you're on, there will always be a constant course correction. If you hold the steering wheel in only one place while you're driving, you might find yourself off in a ditch. That wheel must be in constant motion to keep that car on course. So, it is with our success. We must make a plan, carry out that plan, and evaluate the effectiveness of that plan. Then based on our results, we must make adjustments before we continue on our journey. If things are not going well, what must we do to correct that? If things are going exceptionally well, what can we do to enrich that? The key to success in any area is to plan, do, review, adjust, and do again.

You can work hard and not "hustle," but it is absolutely impossible to "hustle" and not work hard. It's oxymoronic. The very word "hustle" implies an incredible amount of hard work, at times, to the exclusion of eating or sleeping. The burden of the vision won't allow the hustler to rest until the idea is fulfilled. But then in the fulfillment of one image, another emerges, and the cycle begins again.

A remarkable line from the movie "Hidden Figures" was, "The math hasn't even been discovered yet." (That's roughly paraphrased.) A true hustler has the vision to do a thing that requires them to grow into the person they need to be to fulfill that vision. Who they are and where they need to be is within them, but not yet realized. No one can tell them how many hours they need to put in or what time they need to begin. The burden and size of the vision determine that so you will never find a hustler punching a clock when it's time to get to work on their vision.

For the hustler, it's always head down, bottom-up. I'm learning to distinguish between the two, and I'm working on becoming a hustler. Hard worker or hustler. New beginnings. What are you willing to endure to give yourself crystal a clear 20/20 vision that will make the year 2020 your year of fulfilled possibilities and your Day 1?