Over the last few weeks, I've been asked if I'm going to make a New Year's resolution. The answer, as it has been in years past, is no. The choice to make a change in my life has never been calendar driven.
 
Across the country, however, the end of 2009 - the end of the first decade of this century - caused an almost universal sense of introspection. Much was discussed of the events of the last ten years with the focus mostly on what went wrong, rather than what went right.

Such a negative outlook is a rather unfortunate way to begin something that is new and untarnished.  When something is "new" we should celebrate what brought it into existence and rejoice in its potential. This should apply to your entry into 2010, as well.  You are where you are right now because this is where you choose to be. Celebrate the choices that have brought you here and anticipate the choices you are about to make!
 
That last line can be rather daunting. Depending on how you currently perceive your life, you may not feel that the choices that have brought you to where you are today deserve to be commemorated. However, there's an equally likely chance that you have more to celebrate than you first think. The negative retrospective that insists we set almost insurmountable resolutions on January 1 can prevent us from seeing what we truly have. This creates stress, dissatisfaction, and disappointment which overshadow a more optimistic possibility.
 
An honest review of your life will enable you to realize you have much to be thankful for - and then you can appreciate those choices that brought you to where you are today. Now look at what you have ahead of you: an untarnished future. How exciting to be able to choose the path that you will take from here. However, these moments coming into your life are filled only with the amount of potential you are willing to see. What are you willing to discover for yourself, create for your future?
 
This new year, this new decade that you have entered has all the potential of being the best you've ever experienced only if you choose to accept you are creating that experience every minute of your life.
 
I wish you a year full of wondrous discoveries, large and small, and hope you remember to always...