Happy New Year! Now, what…
The start of a new year always inspires me with its hope and possibility. A fresh start! A clean slate!
But…
It’s still me going into this fresh chapter, with all my old fears along for the ride. This year, particularly, I am struck that if I don’t change, nothing else changes. So, why does it feel so difficult to enact change? Why do I start with all this hope and energy, and within months, weeks or sometimes, even days, I have made no more progress than the prior year? And the year before that, and the year before that, and so on. I have come up with two reasons:
Because I tried to go it alone. I thought I needed to conquer these goals, all by myself, for the achievement to be valid.
Because I let everyone else’s “shoulds” get in my way.
First one—well, its just false.
So. Very. False.
While it is very true that I must take the first step, I must decide I need change in one or several areas of my life, I am not then obligated to slog it out, alone. In fact, if I am really serious about success, I am going to get some help! I am going to engage the pro’s in whatever aspects of my life are receiving my focus, this year. A related element: I am choosing just a few, maybe 3, no more than 5, so I can really focus. Then, I can see and quantify progress, and avoid burnout brought on by overextending myself in too many places at one time. Ask me how I know about this one…
Second one—I was part of a course, last year, in which one of the participants dropped one of the most salient bits of wisdom I had heard in a very long time, and it has stuck with me: “Don’t let anyone should all over you.”
Whoa!
I mean, I wrote it down. And I have reflected on it, off and on, ever since. How many times have I defined my goals, my successes and my happiness by someone else’s definition? Answer: more than I cared to admit. What hit me even harder: how few times someone else’s “shoulds” worked for me, let alone delivered the promised reward.
So, what does this mean for us, at the outset of a New Year, following a difficult, painful and often tragic prior year?
As a financial professional, I have learned that every goal has a financial element to it, to say nothing of specific financial goals like: saving an emergency fund, saving a vacation fund, paying off debt, buying a home, saving for retirement, etc. Generally speaking, the bigger the financial goal, the more easily stymied we are by what to do when, and how. It can feel so big, it might as well be make-believe, and we freeze and another year goes by, in which we find ourselves no closer to our stated dream. You don’t have to go it alone!! This is where I enter the picture. And I promise, it is not as intimidating as you may think. Coming in 2023, you can explore my Knowledge, Mastery, Achievement track, a bank of prepared materials and pre-recorded sessions on a variety of financial and finance-adjacent topics. This track is designed with maximum flexibility, in mind, allowing you to access the topics you need, delivered in manageable sizes, at the time that best works for you, or you can follow a guided path through topics organized by subject matter. If you prefer more interactive learning, I encourage you to explore my Let’s Get Financially Fearless! track, a series of interactive sessions, with a limited number of participants, exploring a specific financial or finance adjacent topic, lead by yours truly. Either way,
YOU determine your goals.
YOU define your success.
Together, we can replace “should”, which generally makes us feel badly about ourselves, with “DID”, which makes us feel better about ourselves. Together, we can look back, a year from now, and smiling look at all we DID to get going to make a plan, to protect our resources and to prosper!
Happy New Year!! My best wishes for prosperity and abundance, in all their forms!!
