Dear Reader, has the New Year’s madness set in? That mix of delirium and determination that arrives for the Strivers and Seekers alike. It’s goal-time, baby!
Hang on. For once, Ash, can’t we just … go with the flow?
Resistance is futile. January 1 is coming. And it gets me twisted every time.
One thing. Name just one thing.
What is the one thing that, if I do it—scratch that, when I do it—will positively impact every area of my life?
Is there such a thing? There is no one right answer. No one right way. At least, not that I’ve found.
Can there be such a thing? There is no one right choice. No one right opinion. And yet, how very polarized we’ve become.
One thing. Name just one thing.
Oh, I don’t think I can do that. Ideas overflow. Like seeds spilling into tilled soil. Seeds dormant with the potential of coming to Life, given the right conditions.
Oh, I don’t think I should do that. Surely every seed planted in my mind’s garden needs tending? So many ideations are beginning to sprout.
Oh, I didn’t know that. Tilling, as it turns out, leads to erosion and disruption. A metaphor taken too far, reminding me. Calm the mind before allowing thoughts to take root.
One thing. Name just one thing.
What is that thing? Pen to paper. Twenty-seven Fix Its land on the page. Each evidently urgent. How on earth to choose just one?
What, then, is the one thing? Pen to paper. Now there are five Fix It categories. Each with precisely 5.4 subcategories. Twenty-seven Fix Its now logically sorted.
One thing. Name just one thing.
I. Don’t. Want. To. Please. Don’t make me choose.
It all. Needs. Fixing. Doesn’t it?
Okay. Fine. Alright. Chosen.
One thing. Is that really the one thing?
Pen to floor, where I threw it. Rather violently.
Crumpled paper beside pen, where I tossed it over my shoulder and stomped out of the room. Rather dramatically.
One thing. That phrase pulsing, growing stronger with every beat. Maddening. Like the Tell-Tale Heart.
Wait, why on earth were we assigned that grisly story? Middle school macabre indeed. “How, then, am I mad?” Sidetracked. Again. Back to the
One thing. Name just one thing.
Tune it out. Take a walk. Sit in the sunshine. Trace patterns in the sand. Breathe. Don’t think about a single thing.
That’s it! That’s the one thing. How did I not see that before? It’s clear as a blue sky day. Leap up, arms out, take a twirl.
Flop down on the sand. Sigh with realization. Go ahead, whine. For it’s the hardest thing. Though it’s the simplest thing. Not easy. Simple.
One thing, Beloved. Do the one thing.
‘Tis the Season. Resolution Season.
It’s the end-of-year home stretch to January 1. Oh, the marketers are having a heyday, cashing in on this inevitable moment of self-reflection. Or self-flagellation, as the case may be.
Yes, the marketers have got just the thing. Take your pick. Planners. Programs. Project trackers. Systems. Stationary. Strategies. Calendars. Coaching. Collaborations. Apps. Articles. Advice.
And I, Dear Reader, am every marketer’s dream. For years, I spent countless dollars and hopeful hours in the pursuit of making this year the best year. Yet. Ever. Something like that …
True story. I was gifted Jinny Ditzler’s Your Best Year Yet! Ten Questions to Change Your Life Forever by a business coach to whom I paid a small fortune as a newly minted Big Law partner. After months of said coaching, the book was the only tangible takeaway. Turns out, what I actually needed was a life coach. Or better yet, a therapist. To hell with it, a psychiatrist please! Anyway ….
Ms. Ditzler’s book is not to be confused with Michael Hyatt’s Your Best Year Ever, which I once purchased along with his Full Focus Planner. Annnnd online course. Of course. I’m telling you, every marketer’s dream, right here! I’ve collected stacks upon stacks of books on productivity and organization over the years—many of which I’ve actually read, a few I’ve even attempted to apply.
I’ve purchased April and Eric Perry’s Learn Do Become STEP Mastery course and membership—“Steps to Everyday Productivity,” if you must know. Recently, Cal Newport’s Time Block Planner. Along with the must-have Lilly Pulitzer Agenda, an annual purchase, by far the prettiest and most used investment to date.
Of late, I have podcast binged on my go-to aspirational topic. How to GSD. (Get Shit Done. But you knew that. Not to be confused with the GTD of David Allen’s Get Things Done. Yeah, that’s in my stacks too.)
I don’t recall which podcast or whose suggestion, but this landed: One thing. Name just one thing. What is the one thing that, if done, will positively impact every area of your life?
That phrase has bounced around my head to the point of crazy-making. See above. Pre-Christmas. Post-Christmas. On Thursday’s drive down to the beach. Just in time for sunset, again those two words asking for just. One thing.
It’s not a new concept. I read Gary Keller and Jay Papasan’s The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simply Truth About Extraordinary Results at least one-and-a-half times. The gist is: focus on one thing at a time, make it matter, do less to have a more rewarding Life. This concept is echoed in Greg McKeown’s Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, on doing less, but better, for the highest possible return on this precious Life.
Point taken. Problem is, I’m not a do less kind of gal. You?
I remember my Mom, a middle school principal, time and again telling those dear teachers to “keep the main thing the main thing.” I’m pretty sure she got that from Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Words to live by if you can identify the main thing.
Side note, for I do adore a tangent. Mom also loved the Meyers-Briggs personality test. I think she wrote her graduate thesis on it. Remember Meyers-Briggs? Yet another clue as to why and how we order this Life. What four-letter word code were you? I tested ENFP, though I am most certainly not an Extrovert, as it turns out—I only play one on TV. But the other three were right on the money.1 All this to say,
The search is real. The catch-phrases, handy. The logic, crystallized. But I’ve yet to find answers in the books. Clues, yes. Answers, well those are within. And the search within? It’s a labyrinth, baby.
So we’re back to this.
What is the one thing that, if done, will positively impact every area of your life?
An absolutely maddening question. Because it’s not a goal, per se. Or a resolution. It’s certainly not the Answer to Everything. It’s just a thing.
One thing. That could, with slow but incremental progress, create momentum. That expansive energy that begins to flow and swirl and dance within your being. That source of Possibility.
The one thing? I considered lots of options. Then permutations of those options. At last, I found that there is no one sort of thing. Therein lies the challenge.
The one thing is amorphous. It could be an idea. A mindset. A choice. Forgiveness. Doing. Not doing. Deciding. Refusing. Accepting. Quitting. Starting. Releasing. Calling in. Believing. A way of Being.
Oh yeah, and that one thing? It doesn’t have to be the perfect thing. Just that thing that is real and true for you.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8
As we enter this New Year, may we think about—but maybe (note to self) not overthink—these things.
Photo at Aria in Las Vegas, 2020 with my dear friend
who reminds me that growth is beautiful, there is no ceiling on what’s possible, and we don’t have to do it alone.Dear Reader, what’s your one thing? Sacred or practical, may you find blessings in and through it in 2025. What’s my one thing? I think I shall tend to that in my own quiet garden for a bit.
I am so grateful to have walked 2024 with you. Thank you for hanging around for this mixed bag of stories, thoughts, musings, tangents, WTFs and Maybe Ifs.
I wish you a New Year’s Eve of anticipation, a New Year’s Day filled with Hope, a respite in Faith however you’ve come to define that, and Love. Always Love. XO, Ash
Are you, too, a sucker for a personality decoder? Gallup StrengthsFinder. DiSC. Enneagram (I see you and love you Teresa McCloy!). Human Design (and you too Dr. Ellen Wong!). Astrology (of interest lately, thanks Stephanie Powers). What’d I miss? Oh hey, how about a good ol’ Cosmo quiz?
Postscript because that reminds me: One book I return to as a reference is Teresa’s, Do What Matters. That one thing? It isn’t necessarily the thing that Matters but may it be the catalyst for allowing those things that do Matter to take root, sprout, grow and thrive. The garden only grows what we plant.
As I read this, Ash, I felt I was on a fast moving train, watching the ever-changing views passing by. You, my sweet friend, have a magical mind of a genius. God Bless you with a Wonderful New Year 2025, 7 that may open sacred doors for you.