Ladies and gentlemen, 2017 has left the building.

I’ve been doing this Happy New Year thing for 54 years now. Turning the page from what was to what could be. This year was a little harder.

Personal loss. Illness and injury to people I love. A world that seemed to spin faster and get more divided by the day. Frankly, it was difficult for me to reminisce fondly about 2017. I was looking for the fast-forward button for the holidays this year.

I stood in my kitchen a few days before the end of 2017 and said to my family, “2018 can’t come soon enough, I’m ready to say goodbye to 2017!”

My son stopped me. “Dad,” he said, “You wrote a book in 2017.”

Bam. As if he splashed a glass of water in my face, I stopped. I thought about that thing I completed. That project I had worked on for 2 years as the culmination of a career of learning. Then I began remembering other fine moments of 2017. Family highlights. Fun times. Moments of enlightenment. They started streaming as if they had been outside, waiting for the concert doors to open.

I couldn’t believe I was about to step into 2018 without stopping to appreciate all those moments. That comment from my son was one last great gift from 2017.

Turning the page on the year is an annual, perhaps merely symbolic event that allows us the opportunity to take stock in what we’ve done and commit to our intentions for the year ahead. It is only an opportunity. We think about the past and future and how our lives are moving through both. It is our intention that has the potential to make a difference.

But the task is hard. It is hard to take an inventory of the past year as you decide how you’ll behave in the next one. Nobody’s memory or note taking is that effective. No resolution you make today is as crisp as you need it to be 12 months from now.

The frequency with which we revisit our resolutions is fraught with the tendency to build regret. We remember that thing we committed to do, and feel guilt about not being diligent in getting started earlier. We suffer crises of confidence. We fall back into old habits. We question our error in trying to convince ourselves we could have behaved differently. How we should have already changed our flawed habits. Another year passes. It’s the holidays again. Oh my.

This year, try something different. Make your New Year’s resolution every day.

Each night before you close your eyes, take stock in what happened that day. Your accomplishments. Your brilliant thoughts. Your stumbles. Your fears and regrets. Your choices and your wishes.

Then make your resolution. What will you do tomorrow. Which behaviors will you repeat? Which will you change? What circumstances will you create? How will you respond to things you can’t see approaching?

Then do that again. And again. Write it down if you need to, or just think it. Your resolutions will become habits, and your habits will become principles.

You’ll find that when you arrive at December 31, 2018 it will feel like just another day. When your friends ask you if you stuck to your resolutions for the year, you’ll tell them you did. Each and every day.

Thank you 2017. I’m sorry for almost tossing you out with the holiday trash. I couldn’t have made it to 2018 without you.

Lead well.

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