BY KEISHA JOHNSON
Wow! You’ve made it to the end of 2016! That you are still here, breathing, conscious is worth celebrating! If your mind is intact, celebrate! If your health has not failed, rejoice!
Whatever losses, challenges or disappointments you faced this year, the bigger victory is that you are still here. Which confirms that you have more to accomplish and much more to offer this world!
Let no one and nothing convince you otherwise.
You are here for such a time as this. You are equipped. You are valuable. The power to make a difference, effect change, influence your destiny and meaningfully impact the lives of others is within you!
I think of Lee-Anne Lyons Bartley, a young professional, who heard of a gap in the Peel Children’s Aid Society a year ago and volunteered to raise funds to help. As close friends and family responded to her initial appeal, she quickly met her goal.
This year she decided to campaign again and audaciously tripled her target. As word spread from her network to the rest of the ‘village’, a chain reaction occurred resulting in a 600% increase over her efforts of last year!
Lee-Anne reported that at the beginning, she had no idea that her simple act of compassion to help youth-in-care feel the love of their community at Christmas and would generate such an overwhelming response.
But here it is, one person’s choice and action ignited many others to get involved. The ‘power of one’ brought awareness, marshalled a community, supplied a need and infused hope among members of a younger generation at risk of dim or fading hope in themselves and in humanity.
You too have that same power. The power of one. You may or may not have impacted a whole community like Lee-Anne. But I’m pretty sure you’ve made some strides in 2016.
Have you ever been to a store and met a notice that says “closed for stock taking?”
That’s an essential business practice to determine levels of supply and assess what needs replenishing, how much and when.
It’s also helpful for forecasting, by indicating what’s working and what’s not. If Walmart has an item sitting on the shelf that is generating little or no sales, it’s guaranteed they’re not ordering more of that item to stockpile. It just wouldn’t make sense!
The same principle is useful in our personal lives.
If you haven’t already, pause for a moment and do a personal inventory of your year’s achievements. Exclude nothing. You may just surprise yourself how much you’ve accomplished.
Go one step farther, and for each item reflect on the role you’ve played in its outcome. Whatever you were intentional about, you more than likely achieved or made progress on. Of the things that ‘just happened’ on the list, were they by default, in your control or totally beyond your power? What lessons can they teach you?
As you move forward into a new year, it merits asking, will it advance me towards my desired end to continue doing more of the same? Or do I need to make some adjustments? What are those adjustments? Am I sufficiently equipped to make them on my own or do I need more training or to enlist someone else’s expertise?
Remember that the likelihood of success in most endeavors increases when we prioritize in our area of strength and allow others do the same.
So, having taken stock of your 2016, command your 2017! Be very specific about the outcomes you desire! Make SMART goals. Work your way backwards for each goal by answering step-by-step ‘what will it take’? Pen it in a note to self. Copy it to a trusted ally who cares as much for your success as you do. Buckle up and just do it! The world is waiting for you my friend to ignite the amazing power of one in 2017!
