New Year – New Dreams…

Adios 2013. It was a good year and it was a tough year. Probably every year that comes and goes could have that line applied to it. We’re moving through the first month of January and ’13 is in the rear view mirror and getting smaller by the day. What are your “take aways” from ’13? What did you learn? What would you have done differently? How will you let ’13 influence ’14 for good?  Don’t mindlessly move into and through the beginning of another new year without pausing to reflect, learn, evaluate and make some course adjustments.

How will you order your life this year? Will you be driven by the tyranny of the urgent…or live “ordered” according to your life’s values and that which is truly important?  The urgent vs. important is a constant battle isn’t it? An ordered life, lived according to the important things, means saying “no” to many good things. It means taking control of your time, turning off the TV, taking time for quietness, prayer and people that you love. 

We’re daily bombarded by hundreds and hundreds of ads and messages all trying to shape us and conform us into what THEY want us to be. In some grocery stores, TV show names are now being stamped on eggs! Imagine opening a carton of eggs and getting the CBS TV line up for that night! Insane. Bus stop billboards can now emit odors, enticing you to buy those chocolate chip cookies pictured in the ad. Double insanity. You can’t pump gas now without having a little TV screen there pushing the latest “whatever” on you.

It’s my goal to turn down the “noise” this year. Yes, I have athletic dreams and goals for this year. I love racing! But I want to spend more time with my adult kids, my wife, my parents and help my 88 yr. old mother-in-law as much as possible as her health fails. I want to read more and try to be an encouragement to as many people as possible in 2014.

Yes, go train, race, have a blast and enjoy your health. But remember the really high value objectives in life - God and people. I know as I lay on my death-bed someday (way down the road – I want to live to be 100), my loved-ones and close friends won’t care what my Ironman time was, 5K time or best Olympic distance tri time was. They’ll care…that I cared about them.  Press on, caring for people!