2022 felt different I’ve grown more with you than in any other year of my life. I saw a lot of the usual people coming and going, ideas emerging and receding. I saw that a concrete plan once required alteration and patience in 2022 but now requires a push from me in 2023. You pushed me further than I’d ever gone.
You asked that I bend but not break, wander, and lose sight of this Summit. You initiated through failure and increased in confidence that I’d never had before our knowing one another.
You essentially became a new Baseline allowing me to turn last year’s ceiling into this year’s floor which is wonderful. I think bigger, I understand more, expect greater things of myself but also now understand that what was required to get to this point is no longer sufficient to arrive at the next level and that’s probably the most valuable gift you’ve given me.
The reminder that I must be evolving, that the tactics required to reach the 5,000-foot Summit are very different from those required to progress on to the 20,000-foot Summit and so as I continue my ascent, your voice will be echoing in my ear.
This a reminder that growth is uncomfortable because change is uncomfortable, but that discomfort is and always will be the cost of admission looking back at you. I can see the value tucked away in my endeavours you didn’t necessarily make it obvious, and you didn’t highlight them, but you knew what you were doing losing some things in my life made room for others.
Thank you for that space door closing pushed me into new rooms with new people and new ideas. Thank, you for those opportunities struggling to find answers forced my Innovation. Thank you for that vision I get at the turn of every calendar year. I used to sit, reflect on the ride, and think next year is when the stars align. The Big break happens, and the world opens.
Next year, but 2022 if you’ve shown me anything, you showed me that that line of thinking is somewhat inverted, things won’t happen next year because it’s my turn to stumble across the winning lottery ticket, no the things that arrive are directly proportional to the opportunity I create for others in 2023. It has nothing to Grant or gives to me it merely provides the arena for me to perform. It’s going to allow me to carry on to progress to take the magic of the last 365 days and make something beautiful with them it’s not so long as fate allows it.
So long as I don’t get in my way, 2022 we set the stage for the performance of a lifetime reassure me that my world within matters that I was hit to the correct star that so long as I don’t stop so long as I continue to believe so long as I trust the man in the mirror, the external world can be manufactured like pieces of a puzzle. I am stronger, wiser, and bolder. I’ve homed in on my vision-reduced dead weight, specify which means the most.
I am not the same person I was standing before you on the day we met and now 2022 it’s time to take all you’ve gifted me on to New Horizons and adjust my sales to The ever-changing winds of time I’ll use the carefully selected stars to navigate fully understanding that you didn’t show me the way but you showed me I was and am always equipped to uncover the way the metaphorical teaching of the man to fish so that he never goes hungry again and so I leave our time together with a heart, a mind and a soul fully nourished and ready for all that comes next.
Goodbye, my friend and thank you for everything. The good, the bad, the ups and the Downs while our dance inevitably couldn’t last forever, your melody will echo across time. There’s something incredible about the prospect of starting over not because I am unhappy with who I am but because each step that brought me here wasn’t perfect in its unique way because somewhere deep down, I can feel the infinite and know when it comes to what’s possible.
I am a flicker of light in a galaxy of stars waiting to take shape, finding my way to shine out across the very elements from which I came to see the beginning again. It simply means a new chapter, it means the next adventure, places I’ve never gone to, and people, I’ve never met. It’s stories untold and dreams still dancing around in my head.
There’s an old Dr Seuss quote I remember as a kid he said sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory and turning the page on that chapter is as if nothing else but a temporary reminder that I am in the very moments I’ll look back on and smile, and shine a spotlight on the people that mean the most and reassures me that the small stuff just might be the moment.
After all, life doesn’t dwell on the Heartbreak or the times, we’ve felt but on the times we got back up, the times we looked with confidence at the road ahead and smiled at the horizon as each fleeting moment is discovered for the very first time. So, here’s to breathing in that Ocean Breeze, laughing until my stomach hurts, here’s to Dreaming like there are no rules and living like there’s no tomorrow so creating my Masterpiece.
One word, one note, one brush stroke at a time to dancing when the music isn’t playing and sharing my song when it is time to walk right by it being light in the darkness and a voice in the silence. Here’s to living life on my terms, paving my path, and writing my own story the one where the hero doesn’t stop until the princess is saved and the castle is taken. The one where reality reflects imagination because if I do these things when I look back years from now, I’ll have a lot to say.
But I promise you that I wish won’t be one of them not because of what I was given but because of what I chose to see. If I am lucky enough to be different, I won’t let go because I spend a lot of my time and energy exploring the power of perspective.
How my reality is determined by how I interpret what’s in front of me. How one person can look at one thing and see pain or a problem or a barrier and another person can look at that same thing and see an opportunity or a future win or a bridge to something better.
One of the best examples of this is how I perceive those qualities that make me unique. Those things that put me in a different category maybe I am a little hesitant to fully embrace because they’re not common and when it comes to that which separates me from everyone else well, I believe I have the decision to make.
Two paths diverged in a wood, I took the one least travelled by and that made all the difference. On the surface I could easily brush this off as trivial, it’s like oh nice that’s cute he took the path less travelled by, but what does that mean as it turns out it means a lot. It means instead of burying what makes me different I made it my Battle Cry.
Instead of slipping under the radar and sneaking through life like so many of us do I signed the dotted line for the pain of being a beginner, the struggle of being uncertain, the discipline and the sometimes torturous road that is turning a passion into excellent trading peace of mind for the pursuit of meaning in life, exploring what makes me unique.
I choose courage because it’s not just that I am alone taking that path means every step of the way my mind screams at me reminders that I am alone. It’s not just fighting traffic patterns it’s fighting my DNA, it’s resisting that impulse to please, sit down, shut up and blend in. So was it a trivial decision I’d say not maybe even the most important decision I can make because I promise you it’s not my commonality with those around me that will bring fulfilment that will leave a mark on my life in the world that surrounds me?
No, it’s that thing that’s unequivocally me, that’s a little out there that’s somewhat strange that I don’t know why but its gravitational force pulls and pulls a tug of war where one side begs me to just relax, conform, do less and begs me to never be laughed at or criticised to take the easy Road, then I have the other side poking, prodding and asking me, hey yeah but what if, what if I sacrificed the comfort of right now what if I explored, what if I took that which I love and ran with it.
What if I worked for a delayed payday what if for a moment in time when people ask me what the plan is I must look back and say you know what I’m not quite sure what I’m building but I’ll keep pivoting until it’s so clear I can see it from the moon. Those are the paths that pull me apart and every time I’ve lost my way it’s because I’ve doubted my unique path and I mean that every time. it’s when I become impatient with the journey or look around and see someone else winning in a different Arena using different methods different strategies see the latest trends and success formulas.
I want part of that right, I’m human I want to win I want to succeed but just like a little opening is enough to let in the outside water that sinks the boat, well a little bit of Doubt is enough to derail my process. The process that I must believe in, protect nurture, a process that I’ve come to separate into two pieces, number one believing that the exploration of that thing that makes me unique it’s valuable and that my abilities mean something.
They’re not inconsequential they’re not stupid or trivial or unnecessary if it means something to me it will most certainly mean something to others, and me bringing it to life not only helps me evolve grow flourish it helps the world.