Evaluate 2018 and get ready for 2019

Where You’ve Been

And just like that, here we are again. The closing moments just before the curtain falls on another year. I have found that a lot of people are saddened during the week after Christmas. The busy holiday season is over. No more parties. Family is headed back home (which in some cases could be a good thing). The big ball is about to drop bringing an end to the past year. I guess there could be reason to feel a sense of loss.

Generally, however, I always feel a bit of excitement. I am one of those “glass is half full” types of people. Sure, I will look over my body of work from the past 12 months and I will find lots of missed opportunities, unproductive days and yes, even some failures. But I won’t stress over those as much as I will reflect on them momentarily, and think about how I can change things for the better the next year. But, let me encourage you to do something.

Where You Are Going

Some of you are thinking to yourself right now, “Dale, I don’t REMEMBER much of what I did this past year.” Then let me encourage you right now, to start this one important thing as January 1 quickly moves toward us. Before we all start singing Auld Lang Syne, shooting fireworks, and welcoming in 2019, I want all of you reading this to make a simple purchase no later than Dec 31. I want you to buy a 2019 Journal. Most book stores will have them. Doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy, just find a journal that is a good fit for you. Then, as we begin to navigate through 2019, I want you to write in it EVERY SINGLE DAY. I don’t want you to use this journal to set appointments, upcoming activities or birthday reminders. No, this journal will have one purpose and one purpose only – at the end of each day, write down something that you accomplished. Make it positive. Even if you have one of those lazy days in February where you never get out of your pajamas, you eat cold pizza from the night before, and you watch movies all day, find SOMETHING POSITIVE about your day and write it in your journal. If you have a big day where you get a promotion at work, do a book signing, get a huge bonus or travel to a place you’ve never been before – write something about it in your journal.

Will you have experienced missed opportunities, setbacks, heartbreaks and failures? Yes, of course you will. But you will have to jot those down somewhere else. In THIS journal, only write down positives, and do it every single day.

Life isn’t always happy. It’s not always easy. Unfortunately, the way we are wired, we tend to focus on the bad things and allow them to overshadow all of the good that is going on in our lives. So this year, we all, together, are going to make a point to write down something positive from every day.

This time next year, it will be easier to look back over all that your’ve done, and I PROMISE you, your perspective, on life and on the year drawing to a close, will be completely different. You will have a much better sense of accomplishment when you are able to look back and think about all of the positives from the year before.

Looking forward to productive 2019. Aren’t you?

Remember…Life Begins Today!!!