Why Not Start By Making A List

Finally, 2025 is here! Why are we so excited? For most of you, you've been through the changing of the year more than a few times and witnessed firsthand how last year will follow you to the next. At least it feels that way.

The changing dates mark a symbolic chance to push out the old and welcome in the new. What is going to be new or different this year? That becomes the 46,000-dollar question we all desperately want to solve.

Truthfully, there are no easy answers to the question. Finding them takes a few things, the first of which is work. What kind of work, but not the kind that comes with making the tired old resolutions.

Sure, some things will carry over from previous years, and that's alright.

The Hardest Part

What's the hardest part of tackling the new year? It's the one nasty part of life many struggle to deal with. Can you guess what it is?

If you said change, you nailed it, and should consider being on a game show! I smell champion in your future!

Change is hard, and making them ourselves is harder than accepting changes thrust upon us. But there comes a time when we must not only accept change but choose it, even embrace it. Change is important for a reason.

It's how we grow as people. Change is the roadway to new successes. Through change, we discover who we are inside. And isn't that part of what each year has been?

In 2024, I witnessed a lot of fear and suffering. The year ended with fear and sadness, but along with that, a sense of accomplishment and renewal. As we enter into 2025, one embraced change from 2024 gave birth to a new hope.

My first and only wife's family struggled with chemical addiction issues. That predisposition to chemical dependency was passed on to my son, and admittedly, gave me my worst fear of the last 15 years. In 2024, I saw my son begin to change.

On December 31st, 2024, he got his sixty-day chip. For the first time in over a decade, I think there's more than a chronological chance he'll outlive me short of a miracle. Even in 2024, when the doctors told me I would likely live about two more years, I still feared that at the rate he was going, I would bury my son.

As we enter 2025, on day one, I'm embracing change even though I don't like some of it.

I decided this year would be different because I would make no resolutions. I plan to do certain things, but if the last year taught me anything, life often gets in the way. What are your plans for the year?

At the top of the list is staying alive! When you have Stage IV cancer that's spread throughout your body that is the first thing you think about. It's hard to be supportive, useful, or happy if you fail to do this one thing. Eventually, we will all fail at this. But I'm not ready to pay that debt.

What does the list look like after staying alive? This is where I'll enter new territory. There are more changes on the horizon, and the future is everything but certain. But into the challenge, I go.

Reentering the job market again at age 52 wasn't in my long-term plans. Like many tech companies, the one I work for is going through some changes. I've already received the letter acknowledging my position will be eliminated this month or in early February. On to new and better I say!

What else will I attempt to do in 2025? One of the things I have enjoyed the most over the past five years is writing, and soon, with just a little more patience, I'll achieve a milestone of 50,000 reads on Vocal.

Along with 50,000 reads, there's the ever-elusive milestone of winning a challenge. I guess I love a challenge! Certainly, someone who can beat cancer can win one of these elusive challenges.

Maybe it's time I look for a job that pays me to write. Now, there's a thought.

What is this all about? It's about change! Change is the one constant in the world; it's the thing we can all depend on being there. In another year of constant change, our best bet is to accept the changing world we live in and face each change head-on.

It's not always about knowing what to do and when to do it. It often comes down to having a give-em-hell attitude and figuring it out.

Start by making a list, and then refer back to it. Periodically, see how you're doing this year. Make tiny adjustments whenever and wherever you need to. Most of all, make it a great year, no matter what life throws at you!