Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our families to yours!
Featured Thoughts: Holidays & New Years Resolutions
New beginnings are cool.
A fresh start fills us with new opportunities, new goals, and renewed hope. These things are pretty inspiring and move us to action.
Endings can be hard.
Some worse than others. Some expected and some not so much. Some we welcome with open arms, and others we try to deny for as long as possible.
And another funny thing about endings: they give us this mistaken sense that it’s not worth trying anymore.
Remember “senioritis?” That feeling of laziness and “why bother,” because every bit of effort from there forth won’t actually impact your eligibility for college or have any profound impact on your future.
How about those of us who have experienced being hired for a new job, a better job, and we’re simply fulfilling the obligation of our two-week notice? I promise, you’ve never been so fed up with a job than when you realize there’s a better one waiting for you just beyond the horizon.
In these scenarios, the effort put into the ending doesn’t necessarily affect your new beginning. What’s done is done.
This isn’t the case with your health.
The only beginning is birth, and the only end is, well, the end.
The start of the year can play a funny mental trick where we think a new, promising beginning is just beyond the next rotation of the planet. This can lead us to lose sight of the importance of our actions right now, the moment in time when we’re likely to experience our own version of senioritis.
It’s true, you can either make the decision to change or not in the New Year, but you can also make that decision right now.
Your health, your confidence—your life—doesn’t begin or end in the New Year, it begins or ends with every choice you make from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep at night.
Your choices today, and everyday leading into the New Year, and everyday thereafter, matter.
Holiday Must-Have:
Alex’s Secret Cookie Recipe: Brown-Butter Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies
Takeaway: A special link to one of the best cookie recipes ever. A tradition of mine for the last few Christmas’.
Feel free to steal the recipe and bring to your holiday gathering. I only have one condition: If you make these cookies then you have to send me a message and let me know how you enjoyed them. Deal.
Because We’re Dying To Know:
How Rich Were The McCallisters In Home Alone?
Takeaway: Estimates say they’re in the top 1%. I want to know why this wasn’t asked when the movie came out?
Published This Week:
The Comic's Code: Lessons From Improv That Can Boost Leadership & Success
Takeaway: What can we learn from comics about achieving greater success? Praise others for good work, and know that your story is only finished when you decide to end the scene.
Just For Fun:
The Worst-Behaved Tourists of 2023
Takeaway: Should be pretty self-explanatory. This is what NOT to do when you travel.