Just do it: a reflection on old dreams and new years
“The only thing harder than starting is starting over.
The only thing worse than a helpless feeling is a hopeless one.
The only thing emptier than death is life when all the life is gone out of it.
The only thing viler than hate is hateful love.
The only thing sadder than losing is thinking you won.”
“New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.”
And Auld Lang Syne
Pull up a chair. Let’s talk, you and I, about old dreams, new years, fresh starts, and beginning…again.
It will always be stylish to be cynical about New Year’s resolutions. Some will joke that their resolution is to break whatever resolution they might have made, and to do so before February 1. Others will scoff at the idea of making any sort of resolution at all.
Cynicism of this sort is the primrose path of the pathetic, trying to mask this fact by presenting as apathetic. It is the roar of the Cowardly Lion, the heartbeat of the Tin Man, the ingenuity of the Scarecrow.
Maybe it is fear of failure
How many projects, ideas, and heroic efforts have died in the womb, aborted by fear?
Can you imagine a world without Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, or Walmart? What if fear had ruled the day when these world-changing forces were mere ideas, hopes, and dreams? What if the life had been sucked from them by common excuses?
I would… if I had the time.
I would… if I had the resources.
I would… if I knew I wouldn’t fail.
If we can dream it…
Hey! Early mornings, late nights, scrimping, scraping, begging, borrowing, and failing are all elements of success.
What if Phil Knight’s mantra was “Just think about it?”
It’s not (just) you. It’s me.
My Dad used to say, “When I point at you, I have four fingers pointing to myself.”
Pardon me, then, the public pep talk on this New year’s eve. As long as we are here together, however, let’s decide what goals are worth setting, which dreams deserve pursuit, which things matter most to each of us.
There’s no time like the new year to start or start over on the pursuit of dreams, goals, and a better you.
Time waits for no one. The time is now.
Just do it!
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”
“If we can dream it, we can do it.”