Those are my three words for 2010 (previously it was greatness, action and breakthrough).
Let’s define and apply them in brief:
Greatness
Greatness is living above and beyond the normal and ordinary expectations of life. It’s a potency of character that sets a president for others to aspire to, and encompasses the virtues of discipline, vision, persistence and humility.
By constantly aspiring for greatness in the coming year—and I do mean daily meditation and pursuit—I should be able to attract equal forces of greatness that could help propel me out of my current constrained situation.
The greatness must supersede the triviality of my daily grind. I have to surround myself with great things and people and books and ideas—nothing petty, wasteful, indulgent or ideological. Or harmful to good people.
Action
Action is the other half of good ideas. Plans and ideas must be acted upon in order for them to work, just as bad plans, distractions and time wasters need to be treated with inaction.
Misguided inaction has been the bane of my existence for so many years—perhaps my entire life, and is the reason why I’m nowhere near where I want to or should be.
Action will set me apart from the well-funded overthinkers I rely on for sustenance. I shall not be a poor nor rich philosopher, but a great man producing great things.
The toil, the gritty work, the pushing past fear, the doing—that is the action I must adhere to this year if I want out of the rabbit hole and back on my own two feet, back into the light.
Independence
Independence is the ultimate goal of 2010. It’s the freedom, self-reliance and the shedding of unhealthy dependence on others. It is as esoteric as it is material, from a freedom of realizing the soul’s grand purpose to the more pressing needs of a flourishing income.
Clearly, without naming names, I seek independence from one particular. Neither good nor bad, it stifles my independence and the independence of my family.
After all, why should anyone have to sell themselves to someone else’s cause just because they need the money? Aren’t there ways around this? Is there not a simple and powerful solution to be had?
Epilogue
The strategy is to lay a robust insular foundation in these coming weeks and months, something that needs to be commanded and commanding and embracing of this 3-word 2010 doctrine. There is no other way.
By doing that, by building that rock-solid foundation for the year, I will be able to set the course to freedom.