A New Year

So its a new year. What did you learn from last year? I learned a lot. It was a growth year for me and this post is my first action of my new self. These are the top 3 things I took away from 2023.

1. Live in the moment – I’ve spent my entire life planning for the day when I retired. Then that day happened. I quickly found myself doing what I do naturally and that is planning. Planning for what? My death? No, what I realized is that I did what I was supposed to do and I plotted and navigated my way to a future I envisioned 34 years ago. I had locked onto that goal and made my decisions along the way to finally achieve the goal. What I realized is that now that I’m here I don’t need to live in the future anymore. Instead I need to live for now. I need to experience and enjoy each and every day. I need to share what I’ve learned with my family and be there for them.
2. Empathize and Understand – I can’t stress enough how important it is to try to empathize with other people around you. It is very easy to get caught up in your own mind. So easy that I believe people sometimes forget there are other possible view points. You don’t have to agree and that’s ok. But by empathizing and seeking to understand others you might find that what you thought you believed maybe doesn’t reflect your values. Taking the time to understand you might also find that your emotional response can be tamed or redirected. Instead of getting angry you can try to nurture and mentor. Remember not everyone is on the same emotional intelligence level. Its best to help raise them up.
3. Doom is a powerful motivator – Doom is everywhere but is it real. Some of the threats are existential. For example take the wars in Ukraine and Isreal. These are very much existential for some people. The political powers that be leverage doom as a motivator. It is used to link people’s emotion to a choice. I for one am tired of living in fear. I grew up during the height of the cold war. I was taught to fear the Soviets and I was convinced that I’d be drafted to fight in WW3. Then it became fear of terrorism and now once again the specter of WW3 is upon us. This year I am refusing to be fearful and instead I am asking myself what else is happening and why is doom being used to motivate people.