When I was growing up, one of the rules negotiated for our playground games – such as 4-square, a game where you bounced the ball to your opponents, trying to bounce it hard enough to make it difficult to catch without going out of bounds – was whether you could "do" your turn over if you made a mistake. "Do-over!" would be the cry, if you felt something unfair had happened during your turn. "No do-overs!" would often be the reply, and the negotiation would begin.
With the turn of the clock and welcoming a new year, I’ve been thinking about this: in life, we get to take lots of chances and make lots of mistakes (hurrah!) during our "turn" here on earth, but there’s no "do-over". We’ll never be able to re-do what’s already happened or done.
Which isn’t to say we have to do it perfectly or not at all; just to notice that the time is now. We are lucky to have chance and choices about the paths we take, but we’ll never be able to retrace our steps.
My hope and challenge for you (and myself) in 2006 is to move courageously and boldly forward into our futures, knowing that this is it: there are no do-overs.
Whether you’re a person who makes New Year’s Resolutions or not (I’m more of a goal person myself, set around my birthday), what are you committing to in 2006? I’d love to hear from you, and will share my plans for 2006 in an upcoming post!
Before specializing as a professional coach in 2004, I spent more than a decade in leadership, management and program development for state and local government and non-profit organizations. Now I get to help leaders and teams have more clarity and ability to stand up for what's important in their work and in their organizations. Working with me, leaders and teams find more meaning and purpose, feel happier and more confident, navigate change and conflict, and work together better.
Hi Hanna, I found your site from a link on the Ho’ohana Community Page on Talking Story. My “thesis” this year is to turn my goals into habits one month at a time. I usually make numerous resolutions in January only to break them within the first few weeks. I have a post about this on my blog today. I am usually much more successful when I have a single focus so we’ll see how this strategy works for the year. I look forward to seeing your goals for 2006.
John
Hi John,
Thanks for hopping over from Talking Story – isn’t that community great? Rosa is such a generous person and blogger, and I feel lucky to be in her “loop”.
I love your idea of choosing a habit a month to work on. I hope you’ll keep us updated on how it’s working for you!
Best to you,
Hanna