“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” — Abraham Lincoln
Here’s a simple idea that I learned about how to have your best year ever.
It’s so powerful, and it’s so surprising, that it almost seems too simple, or too good to be true.
The secret to your best year ever is to decide to commit to your best year ever.
I’ll share a little story of how I this changes the lives of 8 people I know.
As we turned the page of the previous year, and headed into the next, our team faced a lot of big challenges and a lot of unknowns. We were understaffed, over committed, and pulled thin in all sorts of directions. Our team was crazy busy and putting in all sorts of hours, and everybody felt under-appreciated.
In a lot of ways, you might say our team felt defeated.
It had been a year of great sacrifices and not much reward.
We all knew that we didn’t want another year like it.
We all wanted a year of meaningful impact.
Among the chaos, confusion, and ambiguity, we wanted one thing to hold on to, and one thing to be true:
Our best year ever. Period.
So, as a team, and individually, we committed to having our best year ever.
A funny thing happens when you choose up front to have your best year ever.
You actually do.
Throughout the year, we stuck with our commitment to having our best year ever.
Right up front, we started changing things to support our best year ever. We took on bigger goals that mattered. We changed how we showed up each day. We challenged ourselves to live as if we were living our best year ever. When big problems came up, and they often did, we’d ask ourselves, how can we make this our best year ever?
When there were big decisions to make, we made them in a way to support having our best year ever.
We focused on what we really controlled: our attitudes and our actions.
And, we let the rest go. (As best we could.)
We had good times. We had bad times. We had really rough times. But looking back, we all had our best year ever. Whenever I bump into old teammates and ask them about that year, they get a little sparkle in their eye. The memories of a meaningful journey are forever etched in the hallmarks of our hearts and minds.
It was a year that truly mattered in all sorts of ways.
It wasn’t an easy year. We all had our challenges, personally and professionally. We all had our tragedies and triumphs. Which is another reminder that it’s not what happens to you that ultimately matters.
It wasn’t about goals, either. Although we focused on those, too. It was all about the journey and our commitment to our best year ever.
The most important thing is that we didn’t have our best year by making a commitment to something “out there.” It was really a decision “inside here”, within each of us. We each personally decided, to really “own” making it our best year ever. We decided for ourselves and committed to help each other to make it happen.
Do yourself a big favor this year.
Don’t try to get through this year. Don’t try to make it through this year. Don’t rush through this year.
Don’t throw your year away.
Instead. Take a step back. Slow down. Embrace the road ahead, challenges and all.
And decide that this is YOUR best year ever.
That’s the single most important decision you can possibly make that determines whether you will have your best year ever.
Here’s to you, your epic year ahead, and to moments and memories that matter.
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