Happy New Year! I attended a worship service on New Year's
Day and the presider gave a wonderful homily about being granted opportunities
to start over. He opened with a cute story about a man who started each day
with a review of the local obituaries. Finding his name among the obits one
morning, the man called the newspaper editor to complain. After taking an
earful of grief from the caller, the editor promised to make it up to him by
including his name the next day among the listing of new births. "We'll
give you a whole new beginning," he told the man.
Hopefully neither you nor I want to go back that far, but it
is nice to get a chance to make a fresh start in any aspect of life. Taking
advice from the same preacher, we should do the following before making
resolutions:
1. Examine the past -- where are you coming from? You can do
it anytime but the New Year is a nice time to restate your personal credo. What
do you stand for? What few words describe your ethics, your beliefs and your
values? What experiences -- both in the past year and in life generally -- need
to be processed and evaluated as you move forward?
2. Identify the present -- where do you stand today? This is
the transition moment. You've looked back and now you're turning your head to
the future. Don't try moving forward while still looking back; you'll surely
bump into something or trip and fall if you do, maybe even hurt yourself. Look
ahead and identify where you want to go. The homily included another story. The
great Mickey Mantle was walking one afternoon in New York City to Yogi Berra's
apartment. Getting lost on the way, he stopped at a payphone and called Yogi. "Where
are you now?" Yogi asked. "On the corner of 5th and Main,"
replied Mantle. In keeping with his well-known style Berra then said,
"Great, just keep coming this way!" and then hung up. Moving without
a destination in mind leads to wandering and squandering of time, talent and
treasure. Know your destination before moving forward.
3. Chart the course and evaluate frequently -- once you
start moving toward an objective you need to regularly measure where you are.
Is the course you charted getting you to the destination you want? If not,
re-chart and move in the new direction. Don't abandon the goal, even if you
have moved farther away than you were when you started. You can still get there
and, with the right outlook, might even enjoy the longer than expected ride.
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