Over winter break, I took three hours and locked myself away to review 2012 and plan for 2013. This includes goal review, life review, deep reflection on what went well and what went poorly, budgetary reviews and then 2013 goal setting for all areas of my life.
And on that point, I can see that there are a lot of unknowns that I am going to find the answer to this year. Some will be harder than others, but not any less worthy of my time.
That’s why I do the quarterly and yearly review … to find what is worthy of my time. To make this fun, I have found 13 things that I am unsure of going into this year.
- Health: Can I manage my health better for a full year without marathon training?
- Knowledge: Can I manage all my reading that I dream of doing?
- Budget: Is my plan solid enough to hit a great goal by 30?
- Creation: Do I have the energy to create two books this year?
- Web: Can I increase my visibility?
- Politics: Is my random idea something with validity?
- Love: Where does it take me?
- Creative: Can I produce the short film I’ve written with a great director?
- Happiness: How do I maintain happiness in the Big Apple?
- Kindness: What can I do to be more kind to friends and strangers?
- Time: Have I learned my lesson from poor time management?
- Darkness: Have I seen enough darkness recently to remain in the light?
- Hope: How do I keep hope alive and thriving in my life?
I control some of those things, and some of them I don’t. And that is the key.
UNDERSTAND CONTROL
I don’t – and can’t – control everything. And neither can you. Once you understand that and let go of the notion that you can, life really and truly begins to happen for you.
UNDERSTAND THE MOUNTAIN
Life is a series of ups and downs. It sounds overly simplistic, and it is, but it is also true. There are going to be some amazing high moments in your life and there are going to be some amazingly low moments in your life. But to get to the top of whatever goal you’re dreaming of chasing, you’re going to have to go through the valley. And it is in the valley where the demons lay waiting for you. My advice: keep going.
UNDERSTAND FAILURE
So you’re climbing up the mountain and you slip down. Or maybe you stop climbing for a few months. In my world, that is okay. We all need a break. We all need to stop and re-focus sometimes. That is when failure is okay. But it is when you stay down, you don’t pick the goal back up and you don’t keep climbing. That is when we and you have a problem.
Are you ready to start climbing?
