Happy New Year!
The unavoidable question would be, ‘what are your dreams, goals, targets for the new year?’ You can read those questions on all the other leadership and personal development websites and magazines.
My question for you right now is, ‘how do you deal with transitions?’
I remember the first time I heard someone use the word ‘grief’ outside of a funeral situation, and it was in relationship with transitions. ‘Isn’t that a little over-the-top sad?’ I thought to myself. My general outlook on life is pretty positive and the pitfall of that can be to skip over hurt or disappointments or – dare I say it – even grief.
Every start of something new is the end of something familiar. This can be exactly why so many of us feel stuck in life.
When we left The Netherlands to start a new life in Northern Italy in May of 2018 we could see, hear and feel that in real life. We had to let go of so many familiars and it was heard in the wailing of dozens of our kids’ dear friends gathered around our car the day we drove off into this new dream that we were pursuing.
See it, touch it, hear it, feel it. Celebrate it, grieve it, and let go. You’re not just letting go of something you didn’t want in the first place. In that case it wouldn’t cost you anything and that’s not how the world seems to work. Let go of the good, in order to receive something better.
“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. (…) Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
Jim Collins in ‘Good to Great‘
What ‘good’ are you saying goodbye to at the close of this year?
OK, I guess I will have to add it after all… My current version of the unavoidable end-of-year question: what is your definition of the ‘great’ that is going to replace the ‘good,’ and why will that make it worth it?