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In Seth Godin’s end-of-the-year blog he writes: “on a micro level, on a personal level, this was a decade filled with opportunity. The internet transformed our lives forever. Opportunities were created (and many were taken advantage of). And, like every decade, just about everyone missed it. Just about everyone hunkered down and did their job or did what they were told or did what they thought they were supposed to, and just about everyone got very little as a result.

Maybe ten years is too long a period of time to plan for. So how about seven?

Seven years from now, what will you have to show for what you’re doing right now?

If your answer is, ‘not much,’ perhaps you should consider a new plan, one that might generate a different answer, or, at the very least, be a more fun way to waste seven years.”

My friend, Bill Sobel shared this perspective: “We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room-by-room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.”

Considering all that we’ve been through since Y2K, it’s a challenge not to become cynical. Although my nature is to look on the bright side, too often over the past few years I’ve found myself dwelling on the negative. As they say in the parenting courses, “Energy grows where attention goes so don’t feed the weed.”

Advice that always made sense to me was to do work that you enjoyed doing (loved, felt passionate about) rather than focusing first on those activities which might bring financial rewards. Of course, sometimes that approach takes a long time to pay off or never pays off. Beverly Beckham wrote in The Boston Globe about a painter whose work now sells for $30,000 or $ 40,000 but who had to wait 94 years for her ship to come in.

As we enter this next decade, many of us Baby Boomers are facing some daunting challenges. We can sit around, wring our hands and feel sorry for ourselves or we can take a “glass-is-half-full” attitude, think about what we’ve dreamed of accomplishing, allow ourselves to take baby steps towards achieving those goals and stay focused on our potential.

John Kelso in the Austin American-Statesman suggests that we keep our resolutions this year small and achievable rather than overly ambitious and doomed to failure. For instance, “I promise not to crash a state dinner at the White House so I can get my picture taken with Joe Biden.”

My daily personal goals are to do something for my mind, something for my body, something for my spirit and something for my soul. More long-term goals involve working to be a better partner for my wife; achieving a more solid level of financial security for my family in the short and long term; focusing on a career that’s psychologically, spiritually & financially rewarding; and helping our youngest daughter to accomplish her goals.

What potential do you see for yourself in the next 7 years?

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