New Year, new you! This is a mantra that a lot of us adopt going into the New Year. We start working out, eating right, stop smoking, cut back on drinking, spend more time with our kids, quit cursing or any other items from a list of perceived shortcomings we think we have in our lives. We approach the New Year with a determination to become better than we are currently. We want to grow as a person or shrink depending on our resolution. We think that with just a little willpower and determination we can become the person we think we should be, and in turn become happier.
Personal improvement is a noble goal and one for which we should all strive. I believe people can change and, goodness knows, I have gone through my own changes in the past several decades. The person we are today does not have to be the person we are in the future. There are incredible examples of people who turned their lives around.
Take Walt Disney for instance. Walt was fired from his job as a cartoonist for the Kansas City Star because his editor felt he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. His first attempt at opening an animation studio ended in bankruptcy and Walt being virtually homeless, forced to live in an office building for a time. Our view of mice would be greatly different if Walt had not chosen to improve.
Thomas Edison's teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything. Edison was also fired from several jobs for being unproductive. However, Edison did not stay in the dark. He changed and created over 1,000-patented inventions, which changed the lives of every soul on the planet.
J.K. Rowling was a single parent living off government assistance when she decided to change her life and started writing the Harry Potter series of books. Those books have gone on to sell over 400 million copies and spawn eight movies, two theme parks and countless toys and games. Today, Rowling has an estimated fortune of $750 million. Although on a side note I wish she would have named the character Timothy Potter or something.
The point of all of this is to say you can change if you want to become a better version of yourself. Where you are today is not an inescapable prison. You have the power within you to accomplish anything you want in life. Whether it is becoming a multi-millionaire or losing that last pesky five pounds. You can do it.
Some of you may be saying to yourself, I'm too old or too set in my ways to change. You're not! Think back over your life. Are you the person you were in your teens or twenties or thirties? I would hazard to guess you are not. Why are you not that same person? Because you changed. It is never too late.
Then we come to the folks who don't believe they need to change at all. They like who they are and where they are in life. To you folks I say, God bless you. You have reached a level of enlightenment that many others and I strive for on a daily basis. You are who I want to be when I grow up. But I can't help but wonder if I asked your significant other would I get the same answer?
I wish each and every one of you a wonderful 2020. I hope you all have the brightest, most magical year filled with all the white-gloved mice you can stand.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Editorial on 01/05/2020