A reporter from the Austin American-Statesman called me yesterday for a quote about a project we worked on in 2018. Yes, three years ago. Here I was laser-focused on 2021 and someone jolted me into the past.
It was a story about a project we’re not on anymore, so I thought about it and then I realized I wasn’t comfortable speaking with clarity on the topic and I told him I’d be happy to pass him along to someone that was closer to the subject matter. I guess he got what he wanted, because he didn’t follow up by email for their contact information. I hung up feeling a bit odd, wondering “should I have thought about his questions a bit harder?,” and “was I the one to respond, since he was asking questions about where the project had gone since it launched?” My gut said no, my opinion didn’t matter, but I couldn’t pinpoint why I felt uncertain.
This morning I woke up confident that it truly wasn’t my place, and that the reason I couldn’t respond with any real thoughts was because the project didn’t occupy space in my mind anymore. I remembered working on it, obviously, but I hadn’t given it a bit of thought in years. At first I felt odd about it and then I realized, that’s the thing about goals, the best ones fill you with such intensity that you don’t have room for the stuff you can’t control, don’t need to worry about or can’t dwell on. So, I’ll likely finish this post and not think about the call again. What I will think about it, and stew over, are our goals, our clients goals and the goals we have personally set as intentions for 2021. Those are the confines I want to live in, the things I want to take every ounce of my mental energy.
I was reading a book the other day, aptly named “Happiness for Beginners” because I thought it would be a light-hearted, encouraging book to start the new year and it was. Truth be told, it’s a quick read from one of my favorite fiction authors, the sister of a politician in Houston, whose storytelling is as infectious as it is inviting. The book is a few years old but the story is old as time. Girl changes her environment to learn something specific and comes out of the situation totally changed but in a completely different way than she intended. This story is extra sweet, but I highly recommend all Katherine Center’s novels if you like that genre. She’s overtly talented and her reading provides a bit of escapism from the mundane realities of the day to day grind. Plus, she sprinkles wisdom into every book, subtly, so it doesn’t read like a self-help manual.
In this book, in particular, the main character has a lot to process from her childhood to her current situation, she’s faced with obstacles—lots of them—in a grueling environment and meets someone who cheerily shares something so simple I hope I can apply it to the years ahead. She suggests, in so many words, every time something feels difficult or unattainable or makes you flustered, think of three things you’re grateful for from the present day and focus on those. It’s something so practical and along the lines of everyone that meditates regularly, but it’s important. I could have told you a zillion analogies from what Marcus is reading about regarding happiness, success, goal-setting in Tim Ferriss’ “Tools of Titans” because both books were written about the same time, but I just wanted to share the simple anecdote from the pages of my 1st book in the new year.
My hope for you is that you focus on the good, don’t dwell on the past. Set goals and intentions in the new year that set you up in a way that all you can think of three years from now is how far you’ve come from the pits of 2020. Whether you faced setbacks, health issues or simply frustrations during an unknown time, everyone had something to grumble about last year. But, this is a new year.
What are you looking forward to? What do you want to achieve? And, what is it that you want to focus on so hard that when you achieve it you’ll nearly forget about the things that didn’t work out in the years ahead? Those are the thoughts you need to take into the new year. We’re here if you need us, but really we’ll cheer you on from the sidelines regardless. Happy New Year!