New Year’s Resolutions: Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.

Looking back at 2012 –

Some things I’m happy I did:
Made a children’s album
Raised $10,000 for a professional workshop of my musical
Completed 20 website projects and reduced costs by over $300,000
Passed the $50,000 mark raising money for Relay for Life
Ran a half marathon
Published another song with another music library

 

<== This wins as 
the scariest,
most difficult,
and most rewarding 
goal.
 

Some things I failed to do:
Make the workshop happen in 2012
Write and record a new song every month
Blog and post consistently
Achieve perfect balance of international stardom and complete anonymity
Become financially set for life
Quit day job and retire to secluded beach house

Actual house where I got the idea
for the last three goals

Interestingly enough, at the start of 2012, only one of the things I accomplished was a goal I set out to do when the year started (the rest developed over the course of the year). Nearly all of what I failed were goals of mine for 2012…

So what’s the difference? Well, some of the goals I didn’t achieve were behavioral changes. I ended up choosing not to do them because I ultimately didn’t see the value in them. And clearly some were too large and fuzzy.

So this year, I will set some new goals, make sure they are measurable, have value to me, and can be broken down into achievable tasks. I want to continuously improve, and make real progress toward my dreams. But perhaps more importantly, I will continue to dream.

Before the holidays, my family and I delivered a bunch of gifts for two other families through “Families First.” When I was there, I saw this quote painted on one of their walls:

Benjamin Mays: “The tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not disgrace to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is a sin.”

For 2013, I resolve to set some real goals, to dream, and to reach for the stars.

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