While the ringing in at midnight to celebrate, and welcome, 2021 might have been something even more desired this year than ever before, there is always something about each New Year that holds promise, simply because of the turning of the calendar.
Or does it?
Is it that January 1 is magical? Is it that the first day of the year is a reset? Is it that a fresh start on a year means anything is possible?
Or is the start of a new year all about a new attitude we all unpack, dust off and even discover?
Putting too much stock in a day, a date or even the light that aligns with the sun and the moon in just the right place at the stroke of midnight can be exciting, and yet, a few days, or weeks, later it can also be disappointing.
To avoid that disappointment, and embrace the excitement, it takes attitude and action.
The attitude of “happy New Year” is one of happy, new and keeping it in action all year. It might sound corny, and like a line from a Hallmark movie, and it is still true.
Happiness is not conditional, it is an attitude. You cannot allow your happiness to be dependent on people, situations or conditions. Happy thoughts, and happy outlooks, come from within and without a baseline of happiness in someone’s life, a mistaken feeling of “that makes me happy” will be fleeting. Happy people are not perfect people. They are not people who are not sad or disappointed, at times. Happy people are people of positivity and purpose, belief and resilience.
New is not all about change. New is about energy. New doesn’t mean everything old is not worthwhile rather sometimes new means a new twist on something that has existed for a short, or long, while. New means there are possibilities and that anything can be tackled with a fresh outlook, and/or approach, to whomever and whatever happens.
A year may seem like a set amount of time, a date to look at life. Instead, a year can start, and end, whenever we decide, plan and execute. There are fiscal years, calendar years, dog years and other years if we let them be.
Since it’s all an attitude, check yours as you ready for the upcoming opportunities.
As tempting as it may be to wish 2020’s 12 months away, remember that there were happy, new and yearlong silver linings, and goodness, last year, too.
After all, when you have happy, New and a Year in view, you can make it a happy New Year, too.
Debbie Lundberg is the founder and CEO of the Florida-based national firm, Presenting Powerfully. She combined her General Motors leadership with her Dale Carnegie Training facilitation success to embark on her business journey in 2006. As an 11-time published author, certified virtual presenter, certified life coach, certified leadership coach and certified image consultant, Lundberg is a performance coach who co-hosts The Business Of Life Master Class podcast. Her 2020 book, Remote Work Rockstar, has become the guidebook for working, and leading, virtually. Lundberg can be seen in her TED Talk “Who Cares?” She serves as a MacDill Air Force Base 927th Air Refueling Wing Honorary Commander board of directors member, South Tampa Chamber of Commerce board of directors member, Centre Club board of governors member, Leadership Tampa alumnus, the Special Needs Family Hour board member and a Tampa General Hospital Patient and Family Advisory Council member. She also is currently in year three of a three-year commitment as chair of the American Heart Association’s Circle of Red. Team Lundberg, which includes Michael and their four-legged daughters, two rescue labs, Lexi and Daisy, resides in South Tampa, where the family settled in 2004.
