The New Year is often expressed with “Baby New Year” and “Father Time” – together representing the birth of the new year and passing or the prior year. They do make an odd pair, but we have used these symbols together for over 100 years to help us reflect on what was and look forward to what could be.
Young and old is a range, two opposite ends of a spectrum. Most of us pick up on the aspect that the new year is a new beginning – dare I say, A new hope? A new beginning allows us to dare, to hope, to dream, to plan, to design, to toy with ideas and yes, to set goals. Hope becomes vision, vision becomes goal, goal becomes action. With a whole year in front of you, what do you want to accomplish?
For me, I have a goal to get my garden to produce more. That includes choosing better, healthier plants to transplant. This is the “baby” part of the New Year. To this, I often say, ‘welcome, New Year, what will you become? You have so much potential! Let’s get you lined up with the best opportunities we can find.’ Set your goal (or hope) for the New Year, but set a big, healthy bouncing baby of a goal!
Now, what about that old feller; the one we now call, ‘Last Year?’ What are we to do with him?
Remember when you last said, “If I knew then what I know now, things would be different?” Don’t let the value of what you went through last year evaporate in a puff of smoke. Dig out those gems of wisdom and experience. Set aside some time to assess the past year to reflect on all you did and what happened. While reflecting, think of all the lessons that you learned in the last year. Especially helpful are all the times you said, “I ain’t doing that again!” Failures can be the most beneficial of experiences, so jot those down.
A self-reflection on my gardening efforts last year yielded that I need to get an earlier start; use better fertilizer; plant more carrots; plant fewer tomatillos; get a new green bean seed; and get the Crenshaw melons in much earlier (among several other things).
With all of the lessons that we learned through the last year, we are well suited to do better in the new year. In fact, you have an edge over last year with what you learned (thank you, Father Time). So, set big goals that include questions like: What is the best that could happen with this goal? How good could this actually get? What is the best I could hope to gain?
With these new questions, start to envision your goal becoming a reality. If you can see it in your mind you’re more likely to make it a reality.
I envision my green beans growing on a trellis in a tunnel of delicious beans from premier seeds that I’ll be gathering by the bucket!
May your greatest hope become a vision, that becomes a goal, that leads you to action. And may the lessons you’ve acquired in the last year inform and inspire you to boldly magnify those goals.
Feed that Baby New Year! Make him or her your bigger, better new year!!
