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“New Year’s Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” – Mark Twain

That about sums up the newness and hope the New Year brings… and the inevitable erosion of said hope once general motivation recedes into the norm.

In other words: Good intentions mean nothing.
In other words: All talk, no action.
In other words: Nothing changes unless your actions change.

As I look back on 2016, I cringe. Not because Carrie Fisher died (although I did tear up). Not because Prince, George Michael, Muhammad Ali or Arnold Palmer died. All sad. Many more names joined the Final Destination Brigade in 2016. I lost my job in 2016 (again). Had friends lose parents. Had other general difficulties, but that’s just the types of things life brings. 2016 certainly wasn’t a banner year for me, but there was lots of good in it too. And I think it’s important to recognize the blessings. Bad things happen but not all things that happen are bad.

I cringe when looking back because I realize how little I accomplished. How much I talked but how little I produced. Other than winning a fantasy football league, I don’t have a lot to show for 2016. I guess I completed a few video games too. So, there’s that. High five?

I didn’t make (m)any new friends. I didn’t impact (m)any lives. I was the hamster on the wheel not going anywhere. Not because certain bad things happened to me, but because I didn’t MAKE good things happen FOR me.

I’m pretty ashamed of myself, actually. But, that’s how life tends to go for most people. We have good hopes and intentions but little to back any of that up. We think good thoughts into existence to make ourselves feel better as if it will accomplish anything. I can think I want to get healthy, but sucking in my stomach a little bit doesn’t make me any thinner. It’s a form of self-delusion that things aren’t as bad as you know they are deep down. The struggle is real. You can lie to yourself so much you forget the truth. And in some ways, I’ve fooled myself. Not because I meant to, but because I’ve let my words supersede my action.

I can’t tell you, nor would I want to, all the things I wish I could/would change. But, whatever is on that long list, all begins with a word: ACTION.

I’ve never been a real ‘resolution’ guy. Val and I would name 10 goals each year and measure progress against them. Newsflash: It didn’t work after a while. When your yearly goals all look the same as the previous three or four years? Yeah… that’s not working. That’s just good intentions.

So, as Val and I talked a little about what 2017 will bring, she mentioned that one of her friends is doing something very different. Maybe it’s all semantics, but this is an evolution of good intentions.

We are picking a single word to focus 2017 on. One word to center ourselves for the next year. One word to wrap our intentions around to focus them instead of floating along, knowing nothing will change.

My word? Well, you probably guessed it…

Action.

I can’t say what I will accomplish this year. So many things are beyond my control.  I want to get certain things paid off. I want to read 10 books. I want to write 52 blogs (at least one a week) this year. I want lots of things, but everything is dependent upon things I just have no control over. What I CAN control is the action and effort I put forth.

I talk a good game, but when the results are measured, I’m ashamed to say I lack in that regard. At least to the standards I should meet. And the primary reason? I’m lazy. I don’t put (m)any plans into action. I talk about things as if that’s how they get done.

I can’t effectively teach my kid that’s not how life works if that’s how I live my life.

I considered many words to focus 2017 on. And they’d be equally impactful. And it doesn’t mean they can’t make their way into my focus (or future years), but what makes the most sense for me now is action.

It’s time to make things happen and not just talk about them. Feel free to ask me how I’m doing.

What word can you wrap your 2017 around?

http://oneword365.com/#