Happy New Year!
Here are four resolutions you might want to chew on as you finalize yours for 2019. The year just ended was too loud, raucous, and tumultuous, so I look forward to sneaking quietly and politely into what proves to be a much happier and civil twelve months of sharing, caring, and giving rather than lying and taking.
Here we go, Ocean Palmer’s four ingredients to a better 2019:
- Be good to people. There are a lot of hurt and frustrated people walking around out there, too often invisibly so, so if we all do our best to be positive forces in the universe…we can bring invisible joy to millions. Being nice is free, as is old school courtesy. When we make others feel better, we feel better too.
- Whatever endeavors we choose to pursue, let’s try our best. Our best is good enough. When it isn’t, and we pressure ourselves to be perfect, or to “win at all costs,” we pay a price in that pursuit. When we have the discipline to engage “in the moment,” we are undistracted. Fully focused, we can give our best efforts. When we are easily distracted, engagement wanders and execution suffers. The world is overpopulated with lazy skaters and corner-cutters. If we refuse to join them, and do the best we can, we will be fine.
- Look up. Look around. Look inside. Navigating each day with mindful awareness enriches lives in ways that digital addiction cannot. This year and next, 5G transmission speeds will hyper-speed phone options. This will be good in some ways but destroy lives in others. Let’s commit to having a good portion of each day reserved solely for “think time.” By being more aware of our surroundings and inner selves, we can protect ourselves against the emotional and behavioral downsides of digital addiction.
- Own your story. This is a collective hope for all but an individual pursuit for each of us. Your story is everything that makes you “you.” Own it. Examine it. Vote on it. If your story is incomplete or you decide to change it, you may need to do more of some things, less of others, start doing new things, or challenge the value of others. I am fond of saying that the dash between a person’s birth year and his or her death year is comprised of tiny dots. Just as images on a screen have a density determined by DPI (dots per inch), each tiny dot is part of that person’s story. The good ones are dots, as are the not-so-hot ones whose recollections make a person wince. Own your story. If you haven’t yet achieved what you want, keep writing.
I close with a gentle reminder not to take ourselves too seriously. Four billion people throughout China, India, and Africa do not care about what an American chooses to worry about. Everyone has his or her private or crowded road to travel. But if all of us are good to people, do our best, live “in the moment” through undistracted self-awareness, and own our personal stories written around positive life achievement, they all of us will have a good year too.
All the best, all the time.
Ocean Palmer