Welcome to 2021!
Henry Ford said: “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.”
I want you to think about this quote for a moment before reading on. What do you think he was saying when he made this statement?
Unless you have been living under a rock I am sure that, like me, you have experienced a year that brought many challenges and asked you to do things a little differently. The truth is, this is a great opportunity to look forward and make this a time for change.
You have learned to go to class virtually and communicate more via Zoom or another online video platform. How did you deal with this change? Was it easy or did you struggle to come to terms with it?
Over my lifetime (which is a little longer than yours!) I have come to understand that the only constant in our lives is…..CHANGE. With this in mind, we need to get used to it and even embrace change as a good thing. Henry Ford was saying that in order to get different results and grow we need to change the things that we do otherwise we will not improve.
We take many things for granted such as cell phones, computers, email, social media, satellite television and the internet. When I was a teenager we didn’t have any of these things, can you imagine that?
The thing is, we still got things done and yet if we hadn’t been prepared to accept change we would be missing out on so much. Can you imagine a world where you couldn’t pick up a phone and “Google” the answer to a question? Imagine having to pick up an encyclopedia and look through it to find an answer that was written many years before and is probably out of date already.
Now I want you to imagine what could be possible in the future. Allow your imagination to run wild and think without any boundaries. Ignore whatever limitations you think may exist now because 5, 10, 15, or 50 years in the future they will probably not be there anymore.
What is one thing that you would try to make come true if you knew 100% that you couldn’t fail?
Write it down and then keep asking “What if” questions to expand on your idea. It can be anything you want it to be. A new style of transport, a new way of moving from one place to another, or a world where everyone lives in harmony and there is no disease.
What do you enjoy doing so much that you lose all track of time? Is it reading, drawing, making something, writing, or something else? Now think about how you can use your passion for doing this thing to make a difference in the world by making your thing come true.
This is not something that you can do in 5 minutes, 5 hours, or even 5 days. This is something that you should spend time thinking about and building in your mind so that it gets so big it is somewhat scary. Once you have this clear in your mind you should write it down on paper in as much detail as possible.
That is the fun part so now it is time to do the work and start to make it come true. If you have taken the time to create a grand vision you may seem a little daunted at this point and that is good. The key is to get started and take the first step so think of one thing that you can do every day which will start moving you toward your goal. If you need help with this refer back to my December blog where I share some simple daily practices that may help.
You can do this, you can change the world and it starts today by making one small change in your life which will compound over time into massive action.
Be bold and make 2021 your best year ever!
With Love,
Chris Baker
