Will 2008 go down in the books as a good year for you?

Did you do good financially or are you one of those facing foreclosure? Did you finish the year in good health or in the hospital. Is your family well or is your father on hospice and your daughter on a milk carton?

Just before New Year, a local talk radio host asked this question.

For many of the callers it had not been a great year. For some of the other callers, 2008 was an improvement over 2007. Actually, it was very interesting to hear how others felt about 2008 as a year. However, it is really a useless question.

Live in the present not the past or future

It is a little late to do anything about 2008.

No matter if it was a good year or bad year for you. You may have got a new job the pays $250,000 a year, but that does not mean that you will still have it at the end of 2009. You may have lost your home in a foreclosure in 2008, but that does not mean you will not have a mansion by the end of 2009.

The past really has no bearing on the future.

I think this is a good thing. It means no matter how much I screw up, I can do better. It also means that you will always need to keep on top of things and keep improving. The only thing the past gives you is education and experience. Unfortunately, for many of us, learning from the past is something that never seems to happen.

It is easy to spend too much time worrying about past failure.

Living in the past is not a good use of time. You can profit from the past by learning from it and moving on.

The future is also something that you can spend too much time worrying about.

You can spend so much time preparing for the future that you never enjoy life. You can never be fully prepared for the future. You do not know what it holds. No one does.

This coming year could be a great year for you. Some people spend so much time worrying about the future they never really have a chance to enjoy life. They spend the whole day preparing for the next. And then, when the future throws them a surprise they did not prepare for, things are even worse.

I do believe in setting goals for the future.

I also believe in being prepared for the unexpected but it is easy to take both way too far. Yet, having no goals and being totally unprepared will lead you nowhere.

A lot of people set new years resolutions at this time of year.

The trouble is not just that they are goals that people never really commit to. The question is why wait till for a new year to make them and are they really a resolution or just a wish. We say “This year I am going to lose weight” when we really mean “Sometime, maybe, if it is convenient, later on during the year I’ll think about losing weight more seriously if it is easy.” Very few people are really resolved to their resolutions. If they were,  they would do it right then rather than wait for a new year.

My personal resolution for this year?

I plan to live as much as possible in the present.

I have that habit of leaving things for tomorrow. Tomorrow never seems to get here and I find myself thinking or saying “I ran out of time.” The truth is, I left the job for the future and the future had other plans for me. It is also easy to over analyze the future by constantly trying to prepare for it.

I also am not going to let the past dictate what can and cannot be done. I noticed that I just typed “I am going to” when it should say “I do not.”

Time to start using the proper tenses when I type too.

I live as much as possible in the present.

I do not let the past dictate what I can or cannot do. I learn from the past and use it for the present. I do not let past failure keep me from succeeding now. I do not spend more time thinking about making that important call (or blog post) than just doing it now.

I live now, not in the future, not in the past.

Now.

As far as not having enough time? Someone much more successful than I once said something. I am not sure it was his originally or if he got it from someone else (I am sure he listens to a lot of inspirational speakers). I think it is very profound.

“You have all the time there is.”

No more, no less.