Monday, 31 December 2012

I was somewhat shocked when I was reminded yesterday that we are going to a New Year’s Eve party tonight, with the implication that tomorrow is the start of a new year.

If I say I don’t want this year to end, I don’t mean that I want to hold on to what is over and done with. What I want is to get up tomorrow morning – the first day of 2013 – and seamlessly continue with everything I’ve been doing this year.

I don’t want to stop and then start again. I want to continue.

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Today is as good a day as any other to tap value from the advice of Mary Schmich: “Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else’s.”

That being said, you are still to a large extent responsible for the huge amount of success and happiness that is coming your way in 2013. And since this is how it is, make sure you do what you can to make it so.

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Text from the Mary Schmich article, “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” was used by Baz Luhrmann in his 1999 song, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. The original article is in turn similar to the 1927 poem by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945), entitled “Desiderata”. A short excerpt: “With all its shams, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”

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