Starting the New Year with New Goals
So I’m thinking about a career resolution roadmap for self-improvement. For me, finding things to improve is not too difficult. On the other hand, finding things that I actually really want to change, to the point of making and keeping a commitment, is a much greater challenge.
Compounding the challenge are the noisy atmospherics of today’s world. Lots of distractions. Lots of energy; some positive, a good deal negative. I do want to be a better version of myself, but as the song goes, ‘I’m waiting on the world to change’. Personal resolution in the midst of social revolution. Things seem more complicated than before to truly make a career resolution.
The mind wonders; wanders? Could the level of our culture’s unrest be due (in some form) to a lack of personal commitment on my part to be the best possible version of myself? Well, that is a bit off the leash.
However, if we extend that thought a bit further, perhaps we stumble onto some more valid ground. If I multiply my lack of commitment to positive change by the number of people who suffer from the same lack of commitment, together, we might account for some measurable amount of the mess we find ourselves. 1%, 10%, 30%…of the messy world, who knows? But I suspect there are many people like me, perhaps even someone reading this, who might suffer from a bit of apathy in this area. I hear an awful lot of jokes about New Year’s resolutions lasting only weeks, days, hours…minutes? One suspects that if you are in this boat with me, we are not alone. Big time.
It has also been said there are only six degrees of separation from any two people on the planet. Tip O’Neill was also fond of saying, ‘all politics are local’. We’re closer than we think; local?
Perhaps, if I can commit to being a kinder, more generous, less judgmental giver of myself, my little sphere of influence may experience some benefit. If we get enough little spheres improving a bit because the people in those spheres have committed to being a better version of themselves, those spheres will influence others and we can begin the process of claiming something resembling the best version of humanities’ potential.
Perhaps something good can really start with one person getting off the fence and making that commitment.
The worst case scenario? The people in one’s little sphere get small measure of benefit from interacting with a better person, or at least someone trying to be.
Let’s make change a local thing next year; as local as the person in the mirror!
