I’m sitting on an airplane, staring out the window, reflecting on the year past and how quickly it seems to have gone by, and thinking about all the adventures I’ve been on. December is a time of pause: we can stop and look back, and, if we really do our diligence, analyze how we can improve and get better.
I’ve met so many people this year who want to do things, but something’s not working: there’s excuse after excuse after excuse; ideas that don’t make it off the drawing board; self-defeating mechanisms that work against you instead of for you. I can’t say that I know what I’m doing all the time, but I’ve developed a few tricks that have worked along the way. And here, on the airplane, I can’t help myself: I quickly scratch out a list of motivations, of voices that I wish you would hear when you’re working hard, when you’re trying new things. This is my manifesto for 2012: to making things happen. You need to make it happen.
Do something.
This is my mantra for the year, my vision behind my actions. You won’t get anywhere faster by sitting and thinking about them. (And I realize the irony of sitting and thinking about this, even as I do it: sometimes moments of reflection are prudent. But here on the airplane, the things I’m happiest about from last year are the actions I took. The things I DID.). And I know this to be true, from the life I’ve lived so far: you need to act, even in the face of uncertainty. You need to try new things. Fail beautifully. Fail miserably. Get stuck. Be frustrated. Make microscopic movements in better directions. But above all else, we must do something.
Do something.
Here’s the presentation: Fifty handwritten notes for you, as always.
With love,
