My New Year’s Resolutions and Wishes for 2013

Everyone loves a fresh beginning. Though nothing really changes, the feeling of starting something new makes all the difference between blandness and excitement. Today 2012 comes to an end along with some rumors of the world ending. Now that we know for sure it not going to end any time for the next few billion years, it is time to gear up and get set for growth in all areas of our lives. We many not reach our long term goals in the next 365 days, but we can be sure that we will be one step closer to our dreams. I wish you a very Happy New Year 2013 and if you are interested, read more…

My Resolutions for 2013

2012 has been a year of knowledge for me. I have learned more in the past one year than in the previous 10 years combined. The knowledge was more from practical experiences in personal and professional life than from reading books.

A few things stand out when I look back the past 1 year:

• Be Open to New Opportunities. Our goals, dreams and desires can change. Whatever we dreamed about achieving in our life came from the roots of what we knew then. Based on our knowledge and experience we would dream for something in our future. But as you go on with your life, you gain more knowledge and experience and your dreams change. And there is nothing wrong with it. Sometimes we would feel like we shouldn’t deviate from our goals and hence labeling ourselves ‘unstable’. But the reality is that there are better things waiting for us than we had imagined. What we thought would give us happiness may change because we change with time. You can be deliberate about something, but something else might emerge and you can adapt to that. The only question that is worth asking wherever you are in life is “Am I excited to wake up in the morning?”. If the answer is yes, no problem. If the answer is no, rather than denying that instinct and staying in the comfort zone, it is time to break out of the comfort zone and try something new. Experiment with your life with minimum investment of time, energy and money and see if it sticks. Just like startups pivot and do something new to check if the market responds to it, you (we) can always experiment with a few things in our own life and see what motivates us and makes our life interesting.

• Learn Even More and Blog Even More. Whenever I read books, I get inspired a lot and it gives me a fresh perspective, but it fades away soon. When I blog about it and help my fellow readers (yeah, you!) with my learning, I learn and understand even more. Its like splitting up the ‘blocks’ of knowledge in my brain and assembling it again thus getting an in-depth understanding of the structure of the entire concept. The difference can be analogous to a common person’s perspective on a building and a civil engineer’s perspective. A civil engineer sees not just the building but he can see what’s inside it with the power of his mind. He sees the deep foundation, the pillars that hold the building up, the force that acts on the pillars, etc. He understands it from inside out.

• To Grow Bigger Than My Problems. I learned that you can never make your problems go away. Just like water keeps coming back to the seashore no matter how much the sands absorb it, the problems keep coming back in our life no matter how hard we try to solve it. The only solution is personal growth. If you grow, the problems will become small and it won’t bother you anymore. You will just ignore it and focus on building your life. To make things more clear, let me give you an example. When we were kids, falling on the ground and getting a bruise on our legs is a big issue. It becomes a big problem… we moan, we cry and we spend the rest of the day focusing on it. However if it happens now, we wouldn’t let a small scratch on our leg spoil our entire day. We ignore it and it ignores us and we can get on with our business after giving it the needed attention – like putting on a band aid. Your problems won’t go away, but you can grow so much that your problems become insignificant and then you can focus on creating your life as you have envisioned it.

• Engage in Challenging Activities and Strengthen Good Habits. If you have read my previous article about expanding your comfort-zone with new challenges and strengthening habits, you would know what I mean!

So what are your New Year resolutions? Make a public statement here… you are more likely to make it happen.

Regards,
Deepak

#Starting-New-Again