A New Year

It’s a new year, I’d like to welcome you all in to it.

To begin, I would like to wish you all a happy new year. It has been such an interesting 2010. This is the time of year that is the most appropriate time to ask yourselves what you have accomplished over the past year. To reflect on the good, and the bad. To reflect on the bad is sometimes not what we want, but it is something that is needed. It is needed because we all make mistakes. To reflect upon our mistakes is a process that helps us not to repeat them later. Do not dwell on them, however, do not forget your mistakes either. Remember them enough to know why they were mistakes. Dwell on your victories, because those are what will motivate you.

I realize also that sometimes you don’t want to look at some parts of the year. Because some parts were filled with mourning. Know that today is a new day. This is a new year. A chance for brand new things. Do not worry about the future, because it is not in our power to control. Do not fret about the past, because it is now part of history. You can choose to look at it, or not. It will always be there, and so there is no hurry to dig it up again.

Did you accomplish last year’s new year’s resolution?

Last year, my new year’s resolution was to bike the MS150. A 180 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin. I didn’t think I could do it. I tried to post-pone it until 2011. But I was encouraged to pursue it by a good friend, my family, and my mentor. Before I had made up my mind, the good friend that encouraged me to do it passed on. Before he passed away, he made me promise him that I would do the MS150 for him. That I would complete it as he would, with my head high and a smile on my face. I didn’t even think before I told him I would. It was decided than and there that it was my 2010 goal.

Every time I went to train, I gave it my very best. Every training session, when I would get tired after only a few miles, my promise would weigh heavily on me. I continued to ride. In spite of my pain, I kept riding to conquer my pain. To tell the pain that I was better, and I had a promise to keep.

When the time finally came to do the MS150, I did not feel ready. I felt tired, and I couldn’t sleep. All that was in my mind, was doubt and disbelief. When I saw the start, I knew I could turn back. I thought to myself, “It isn’t to late, I could complain of being tired. No one would look at me in shame”, but suddenly I felt a great pain. A sorrow that I could not explain. Than I remembered my promise, and I felt strength flow into me as I remembered the words of my departed friend. I remembered the fire in his eyes as he shook my shoulder fiercely. I knew than, that I could not stumble. If not for myself, and nobody else, but for him that I missed so much.

In the first 20 miles of the ride, again thoughts of doubt came to me. But the memory of my friend’s words, and the promise he had me make, strengthened me. Never again during that ride did I have thoughts of turning back. My new motto became “Go hard, or go home.”. I refused to go home, as I saw literally thousands of people do. Many of them in much better shape than I was.

After a long time of cycling. After meeting many new faces, both courteous and not so much, I saw the finish line. When I saw the finish line, I raised my head high, and threw a free hand into the air in victory.

I had never felt so happy, nor had I ever felt such an amazing sense of victory and accomplishment. I had bested myself, and kept my promise. It was later that evening that I thought about him, and missed him. I wished he was there so much, but I knew wherever he was that he was proud of me.

That is what we all must see at the end. To know that somewhere out there. Someone is proud of us for our victories in the past year. When someone you value is no longer with you today, know that you retain the best part of that person inside you. They will never truly be gone, because the memories you have of that person live on. Even if you forget.

What is your greatest moment of 2010?

Whatever your resolution is for this new year, give it your very best. Happy New Year everyone. Make it a good one.