The older one gets the faster time seems to fly. Each New Year’s Day reminds us that time stops for no one. In most ways, New Year’s Day is no different from other days (aside from the fact that it’s a holiday). Today the sun rose at its appointed hour and it will set this evening according to schedule — just like yesterday and just like tomorrow. What makes New Year’s Day different is that we don’t just perceive the passing of another day we perceive the passing of another year. Watching that larger chunk of time sink into history’s abyss is what makes the day so different. Still, we must live our lives one day at time. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Helen Keller added, “Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” Difficulties and challenges face everyone at some point in their life. How you deal with those challenges makes all the difference in the outcome achieved. If you think this is going to be a bad year, you’ll probably be right. If you think it’s going to be a good year, you will also probably be right. As Ms. Keller stated, “Your success and happiness lies in you.”

The late Charles Franklin Kettering, an American inventor, engineer, and businessman, embraced an attitude much like the one recommended by Ms. Keller. “Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar,” he stated, “you present a new place for new ideas and progress.” Undoubtedly, some people will look ahead at the New Year and see only challenges and obstacles lying in their way. Others, people filled with hope and optimism, will see the same path but will see opportunities where the pessimists see challenges. Alfred Lord Tennyson penned, “Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier’.” Happiness is a journey, not a destination. The cobbled path each of us walks is not built for comfort but progress. Our attitude will determine whether the bumpy ride was worth the trip.

Fear is the opposite of hope. Fear impedes progress. Most of us have a fear of failure that keeps us from trying new things and experiencing life more fully. A poet, who I’ve only been able to identify as D. Simone, wisely admonishes us to turn our challenges into opportunities and our sorrows into joys. Simone writes:

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.”

From all of us at Enterra Solutions^®, we hope you have the happiest and most successful year ever.