As a rule, I don't do New Year's Resolutions. I have a sort of nasty tendency to dismiss anything that sounds like it will result in failure. (Not to mention my commitment phobia.) But as I thought about a new year and considered my current hopes and desires, I found that so much of what I'm working on has to do with how I spend my time each day. All those little things that lead to big things that eventually define who we are.
And as I drove to work through the early morning darkness of a new year, I was struck by a line in an Avett Brothers song that pushed through my speakers, saying "decide what to be and go be it." Because if there is anything I've learned with time, it is that we will become the person we want to be. When I look at who I am today versus who I was 10 years ago, I can see the results of my thoughts, the aims of old desires fulfilled. As a jack of all trades sort, I also realize (although it hasn't stopped me from trying) that it is much easier to be something than everything. Sometimes we have to prioritize, we have to decide what we want and how badly we want it.
When I was younger, I thought that I was who I was and I could only hope to possess the qualities or talents I envied in others, but time has taught me to believe in change. At any moment, we can stop wishing we were this or that and start becoming it. We may have no control over the quantity of our time, but we have everything to do with the quality.
So here's to another year's worth of becoming whatever it is we want to become. Let's make it count.
When I was younger, I thought that I was who I was and I could only hope to possess the qualities or talents I envied in others, but time has taught me to believe in change. At any moment, we can stop wishing we were this or that and start becoming it. We may have no control over the quantity of our time, but we have everything to do with the quality.
So here's to another year's worth of becoming whatever it is we want to become. Let's make it count.
Well said!
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