“I resolve that I will lose 25 pounds this year, and become a better person.” Good luck with that! Wishful thinking resolutions can be fun at parties. But a new year is also a great time to take stock of previous accomplishments, and to think realistically about coming year possibilities.
What can be accomplished in the next year that is both realistic and challenging? And at the same time, how can your sensitivities be heightened so you don’t miss unanticipated opportunities?
As a teenager I was advised to determine where I wanted to be in 5 years and to plan exactly what I needed to do to get there. I was told that without a map I would have no direction. But I had no basis on which to draw a map. So I found author Joseph Campbell more helpful. He advised simply to “follow your bliss.” The most reliable path to personal happiness, he believed, is to get better and better at doing those things which bring you the most satisfaction.
In my own experience with students and colleagues, I found that those who identified and developed their most fundamental talents, and never got diverted by unrelated goals, eventually became the most successful. Their plans largely were based on developing their talents. And for most of them, unimagined opportunities appeared along the way.
And so I suggest in 2014 you consider fine-tuning your talents. Identify what worked in 2013, and do it even better in 2014. Top talent, plus hard work, enhances luck… every time!
Larry D. Lauer 
Leave a Reply