Two Worlds and Two Years

I just realized that I will spend the first day of 2011 in Sycamore and in Los Angeles and will fly over about 10 states in between. There has to be some kind of wicked irony that my new year will be in both my old and my current life and I will perhaps be flying over some place that could be my new life.

This time of year there is always the temptation for resolutions. I haven't had the best of luck with resolutions which is something that I realized fairly early on in life. My resolutions in elementary and high school started to manifest in such statements as "I'm giving up broccoli this year" or "I resolve to be honest no matter what this year" which was a fancy way to tell people off. College didn't lend itself to a whole lot of resolutions and neither did my first few years at LMU. However, last year I made a resolution to take at least one picture per day which I actually did a pretty good job with for awhile. I made it all the way through July before my phone started freaking out and it made it hard to take a picture every day. I'd say I still have 75% of the days documented, but haven't uploaded them to my album yet.

There is an allure to resolutions. The promise of change and improvement and life-changing results. It's sexy. It's fun to fantasize about a "better life," whatever that means. Who doesn't want a better life? Becoming a happier person, with better relationships, not to mention shinier hair and a more svelte body. What's not to like about that? My problem with that notion is that it implies that where you are is inherently worse than where you could be. The problem is that you invalidate the present by always dreaming about the future and in my experience, the here and now is pretty damn amazing. If (and this is a big if) you let it.

So that brings me to 2am on January 1, 2011 which means I am in the New Year in my old life, but in the old year in my new life in LA. About 20 minutes ago I read a quote which spurned this post and I hope to incorporate into this new year.

We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman


Here's my list of my potential for growth, not the things I want to change:

• I think I have a lot of potential in my job search. I know I have the potential to not freak out, it will just be a matter of tapping into that.
• I know I have potential for how I approach relationships, both in the sense that there are ones that are not healthy and I need to dial back, but others that have potential on their own if I invest time and energy.
  
• I have some amazing potential in how I go about my spiritual development. I feel like I'm made a lot of progress, but know that I've only scractched the surface.
• I am pretty sure Los Angeles still holds potential for me. I have experienced enough of the city to fall in love with the sights and the experiences, but know that it still holds surprises for me. Spring semester is always insane, but I really don't want to waste the potential of LA due to being "too busy."
  
• My buidling, staff, MESA, RHA and all things McCarthy still have a lot of potential. This could potentially be the last time I supervise student staff or advise student groups in this capacity so the potential for greatness looms in the not-so-distant future.
  

So dear readers, where does your potential exist in your life and how will you capitalize on it in this new year?