Another End Of The Year Is Upon Us

The final hours of another year.

The ball will drop, people will kiss and tomorrow everyone tries to start over.

I pondered making a video wearing my Casey Neistat "Work Harder" hoodie while drinking from my Chuck Wendig "Art Harder Mother Fucker" coffee mug to motivate everyone to do more in 2018.

Those of you who know me just giggled because you know I could never do that with a straight face and that sentence was dripping with sarcastic honey.

The reality is, every December I look back and wished I accomplished more. The truth is, every year I accomplish plenty and if I ever look back and am completely satisfied I know I'm dead.

I wrote 30,000 words of my first novel, did a solid job as an Interim CMO for five months for an organization I love and taught another group of great students.

My son graduated high school and we drove across the country to take him to college.

My daughter is a confident and creative young woman who jumped at the opportunity to drive to Mexico and have lunch.

My wife loves me and makes me laugh on a daily basis.

We have a roof over our head, food on the table and no one we love is extremely sick.

I'm choosing to focus on the positive rather than dwelling on the negative.

So, what am I focusing on in the coming year? Those who know me, know I always go through the 3 Word Exercise to help me focus.

This year I'm choosing:

STEADY

Dan Rather is to thank for this one. He talked a lot about the importance of this word to him in What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism which I read earlier this week. It is to remind me that no matter how crazy things get around me that if I hold steady that I'll make it through. If I remember that our country, my life, and the world has been through an infinite number of rough times before and to this point survived that we can all do it again.

MOVE

Far too much of my life is spent in a stationary position. For a variety of reasons, this needs to change. I want to get away from the social networks and see my friends in person. I want to go for walks, summit mountains and see more of the world. I know that nature recharges my batteries and yet I'm not out in it often enough.

DO

There is a novel that needs to be finished, another book I want to write and a third that I'm revising right now. There are videos I want to make, stories I want to tell and speeches I need to give. There is a classroom of new students waiting for me to begin them on their marketing journey and strangers that I hope my words inspire. Photos to take on the ground and in the air. Cookbooks full of recipes yet to be tried. Books to read. Hugs to give. An infinite list of things that I want to do and rather than thinking about them all and reflecting in twelve months that I didn't get them done, I'd prefer to DO.

2017 was a rollercoaster of a year and while some things won't change, plenty will.

If you are reading this, I hope our paths cross in the new year. We've all become too comfortable with keeping in touch with friends based solely on what they choose to post and share.

A few months back I sent out a newsletter and asked people to hit reply and let me know what was going on. Not a single person I would call a really close friend did so. It was mostly acquaintances that hit reply and we started chatting. That felt truly strange to me and I'm still processing it.

Let's grab a coffee, bourbon or a home-cooked meal. My door is always open.

Happy New Year!