How You Can Know You Really Lived…

Nothing brings our focus to the passing of time like the approach of a new year! Yes, a year of life has passed for all of us. It’s a time to press the reset button and start anew. Tradition has us making resolutions about what we’d like to change in the future. In this case, tradition leads us astray!

In truth, making resolutions is not what leads to change. We do not change-on-demand. Instead, change happens with growth, and growth requires a special mindset. Having a mindset for growth leads us to a path. It is on this path where change, and therefore growth occurs. Finding the path is a commitment to the process as well as the outcome.

As Seth Godin says, “Start your journey before you see the outcome…your resistance wants to be guaranteed the prize at the end…but it’s entirely possible that there won’t be a standing ovation at the end of your journey…And that’s ok, at least you know you have lived.”

So at year-end, you can again try the shortcut…list your resolutions and submit your order for change. Then wait while nothing happens. Or, take some moments to inquire, reflect and find your path. Ask yourself the questions below, and take meaningful action. To find out where you are headed and how you will grow please be willing to look at the path you’ve been on already. Then you discover how to influence your path next year, and the years after that.

If at the end of next year you can say you took the risk of creating magic where there was not magic before, you can say you lived. You can do this, you know you can. And in our current connection economy, it’s a must. Life requires you to live!

Questions to ask*:

What am I better at?

Have I asked a difficult question lately?

Do people trust me more than they did?

Am I hiding more (or less) than I did the last time I checked?

Is my list of insightful, useful and frightening stats about my work, my budgets and my challenges complete? And have I shared it with someone I trust?

If selling ideas is a skill, am I more skilled at it than I was?

Who have I developed?

Have I had any significant failures (learning opportunities) lately, and what have I learned?

What predictions have I made that have come to pass? Am I better at seeing what’s going to happen next?

Who have I helped? Especially when there was no upside for me…

Am I more likely to be leading or following?

If I could reach an audience, what would I say?

If I could lead a tribe, which tribe would I lead?

 

Meaningful actions to take:

Learn to sell what you have made

Speak in public

See the world as it is

Teach others

Write daily

Connect others

Find your tribe,

Lead,

Invent

Find someone filled with hope and excitement and get behind them

Be willing to admit when you are lost

Be brave enough to organize, invent and create art projects…spin something out of nothing, create value where there was none before

Create something that touches someone

GO!

*Excerpts from Seth Godin Blog