Self-Renaissance

It’s January 2^nd 2015 – do you know where your New Year’s resolutions are?

Hopefully, you do and they are still firmly intact.  

 

Yes, I know as well as everyone else that they are like fine china in that; they are delicate, easy to break and you only take them out once a year. In the midst of the stormy conversation about New Year’s resolutions everyone has an opinion. It seems like currently, the naysayers (those that are anti-resolution) would tell you most New Year’s resolutions fail because we view them as a passing fad, merely something to help ring in the New Year, rather than something to form new and healthier habits around.

However, even as the cynical, pessimistic, glass near empty type I tend to be, I would recognize that we need resolutions in our lives – though making them at 11:55 PM after 6 shots of Jägermeister and a glass of generic champagne likely isn’t the recipe for success. Mind you, neither is enacting these resolutions without some form of self-discipline in mind.

At any rate, resolutions in some form or fashion are needed though, because at their core they express our desire for self improvement- even if we may lack the gumption to see them to full fruition. So rather than wail away at those that make these often flimsy attempts at becoming a better version of themselves, I thought I’d play advocate.

Most times in order to succeed at these personal endeavors we just need an encouraging word of wisdom. So it’s in that vein that I’ve gathered some of my favorite quotes in the spirit of motivation in the hopes that they might propel others to get others through difficulty in their New Year’s resolutions and to succeed.

1) To succeed in life you need two things; ignorance and confidence. – Mark Twain

2)  Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory. – Mahatma Gandhi

3) Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success. - C. S. Lewis

4) I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose. ― George Carlin

5) There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. ― Ernest Hemingway

                                            WARNING: GRATUITIOUS THANK YOU TO READERS

                For the record, at the beginning of 2014 I too made one of those paltryresolutions – to write every week. With 2014 at a close I can say that I have managed to accomplish that through perseverance, focus and a bit of luck with regard to timing. And to be blunt, the satisfaction I feel from that is amazing.

                Beyond that, I just want to thank everyone that has supported this blog over the past year or so. Through your reading, comments, clicking, and sharing it’s comforting to know that people are actually interested in the random thoughts that pop up in this scattered brain of mine that I end up throwing down on a page.

That is why I do this in the first place- to make people feel something, to entertain or distract them. While I have yet to take the entire world by storm, I am content with people reading and enjoying what I have to share.

Here’s to everyone having a better 2015 than 2014!