As we head into a New Year, many of us make promises to ourselves about how we are going to live our lives differently. We sense the opportunity for second chances and arbitrarily focus on it when the calendar changes. We seek renewal again and again and again in our lives, when in fact, a new beginning is present for us every day.
What is challenging is the human spirit’s desire for comfort and routine, which lulls us into simply not trying something that may require sacrifice or a step into the unknown. How well our lives are lived shows up among the many small choices we make every day. We get caught up in the busy-ness and schedules that are so packed we don’t see the chance for daily renewal that is right before us. Each day brings the opportunity to choose not to live in patterns that are actually destructive in a cumulative way. We don’t even recognize that the great deceiver has found a subtle approach now available in our modern lives which shows up as the great distractor.
Think of the moments in life which give us a sense of enrichment: time spent in the great outdoor cathedrals at the tops of mountains, before a thundering waterfall, beneath a sky filled with unknowable numbers of stars – that marvelous sense of space and time available to us from a power beyond our comprehension; or when you hold a child who has returned safely from a great adventure, your entire family is under one roof for several days, or your dearest friend who lives oh so far away is able to hold your hand during one of life’s most challenging experiences – the knowing that we are loved and not alone; or those moments of victory when you have stepped out on faith not having a clue how you were going to accomplish something and you were supremely successful, you met a physical challenge that blocked you temporarily from being who you normally are, or you made an attempt at a new skill and learned that you can be more than you imagined – that utter sense of exceeding your expectations stepping into an enhanced version of yourself permanently.
Those experiences are the sum of faith, repeated effort, love, vision, and belief. We have those options before us each day. We don’t have to wait for the calendar to provide us with that opportunity only once a year. Each morning represents the chance to choose to live from those spaces and to pick cumulative renewal that leads to blessings in our lives and focus on what really matters. We can extrapolate this point to the most significant of business choices in our lives. We tend to try to segment and label our experiences into the soft part of our lives – family, friends, and personal pursuits; versus who we are and the choices we make when we cross the threshold of our professional lives, which we tend to think of as the hard business reality. We can use the same variables of faith, repeated effort, love, vision, and belief consistently in our lives in how we make our choices at work as well. It does not make us soft or indecisive or less likely to exceed. In fact, it gives us a huge advantage over our competitors. Try it and experience renewal with those who partner with you daily.
As you ponder new beginnings, use this year as the opportunity to recognize that it’s your choice to daily engage and step into full renewal by living from faith, repeated effort, love, vision, and belief. It is available to you every moment of your life – if you so choose. Your model is what your children, spouses, employees and colleagues will respond to on a moment by moment basis. You choose the patterns you create and the world you live in – whether you notice your behavior and actively choose daily renewal or not. Make this the year that you notice – every day.
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