I must assume that I have fewer years ahead of me than I have behind me, and I feel an urgency to make the most of what's left. I find myself thinking a lot about what I'd like to accomplish and what has propelled me to achieve my goals in the past. And I have realized it boils down to one of two things: discipline or courage.
Discipline is easy for me. When I decide to do something small like embark on a fitness routine or learn a new skill, I find it easy to motivate myself and at least move closer toward accomplishing whatever I set out to accomplish.
Courage is harder. Courage is reserved for the big things like embarking on a new career, moving to a new city or doing something extremely uncomfortable. And courage often goes hand in hand with fear.
When my children were young and sometimes experiencing what seemed to be irrational fears I would say to them "Fear is in your mind. Danger is real. Are you afraid you'll get hurt, or are you in danger if getting hurt?" While that explanation helped them face their fears, it didn't always allay them. But that was OK. I felt that a tiny bit of discomfort was a good thing to challenge their perceptions of what they could achieve.
Now here I am facing some fears of my own. I won't detail them here, because that is not what my resolution is about. My resolution is about finding the wisdom to separate the fears from the dangers and the courage to conquer the fears.
As I look forward to 2021, I hope to clarify what I want the second half of my life to look like, make courageous choices with my partner about how we want to define happiness for the next five years, ten years and 30 years. My life partner is also my business partner, so sometimes big changes can be doubly scary for us. It would be so easy to just coast on what has defined our life so far. But I want to be able to look back and truly believe that I had the courage to challenge myself.
So this year will be about finding that perfect balance between preserving what's made my life so wonderful, and the finding the courage to make it even better.
Read our past years' resolutions