September 04, 2019

DatePublished: 09-04-2019 04:02:07

DateModified: 05-03-2023 05:04:59

In the beginning, we create our year and say what we want, what would be remarkable, what would make the year worth it to everyone involved. We experience inspiration and a sense of freedom as we commit ourselves to something extraordinary, something that would represent the change we want, with the feeling of making a difference. We freely share our picture of growth, value, success, and even the possibility of over-delivering.

But somewhere along the way the reasons start to emerge. They can start showing up with small setbacks, misunderstandings, differences of opinion. Other times they have a little bit more bite, throwing us off with system breakdowns, schedule delays or budgeting missteps.

The reasons can become deafening if we lose one of our best people to competition, or we get bad press, or a big customer leaves, or the market tanks and suddenly no one is buying. We may begin to lose spirit, start to question ourselves, reconsider what we set out to accomplish.

All of a sudden the reasons are winning.

But there’s good news in all of this, which potentially gets forgotten when the reasons drown out commitments. You can snuff out the power of reasons by remembering all over again that it’s in your hands, and you have everything to do with what happens. You can instantly reconnect to what you said will happen. And when you decide all over again who you are and how you want to play the year, you can dictate the pace of the game from here.