The Passage of Time

As we enter into the beginnings of a new year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the past one. 2015 was a challenging year filled with many firsts and a couple of substantial struggles. It was a year that helped me to recognize areas of my own life that I need to improve in, areas that I've started working on well before the start of "New Years' Resolutions." As I've mentioned in a prior blog post, I don't make New Years' Resolutions anymore.

I haven't for some time, and the reason for that has to do with the mindset that I've adopted for myself. I try and tackle challenges as I face them, electing to make drastic changes in my life when I recognize the need to do so. That does not mean that I always succeed in my efforts. In truth, I fail in many ways, the bar I set for myself very high. Some challenges also take time, motivation building up with successive failures until I've finally had enough and commit to a change for good.

But I do not dwell on my failures. I do not dwell on what I was not able to accomplish. Instead, I look at what I have accomplished.

I am a published author. I am a Spartan Finisher. I am a homeowner. I am in a field I love, working with people I enjoy. I am in a loving marriage with the most amazing woman in the world and we celebrated our third year wedding anniversary during our second visit to Hawaii. 

But those things happened in 2015. We are in a new year, and now... those accomplishments mean nothing. I have no intention of holding onto my past successes in hopes that I can relive their glory. They are in the past, and I will not live in it. I have watched people hold onto what they once were, forgetting that it is just a small portion of who they are. The past can blind us, it can lead us to ignore the present. When we ignore the present, we damage our future. And that is the worst mistake of all.

I start the New Year, new. My accomplishments are none, and I have much to do. 2016 will be an amazing year, the likes of which cannot be measured against any benchmark. The likes of which, I refuse to measure against any benchmark. I challenge you to do the same.