I’m giving you a formula at the end of this article that is guaranteed to work for new years planning success. But first I’m going to tell you a story about how it didn’t. How this year, in those first hazy days of 2024 the tried-and-true, fail proof formula failed me.
And this all begins with another fail proof formula for processing things. It involves:
#1 Solitude
#2 Uninterrupted time
#3 Shimmering daylight.
Give me those three things and my scattered thoughts start to click into place, my mind starts to actually work. I can process and grow. I can write and create and brainstorm with the best of them. I could conquer the world with enough of it, I truly believe.
But the three seem to be quite elusive. Especially in the last three years since becoming a work from home parent… to a toddler. And to find them in unison is nearly impossible. So here at the beginning of 2024 I’m trying my hardest to pivot. To seek out nearly perfect scenarios and roll with it, if you will.
How do I find solitude in the presence of others? Noise canceling headphones help.
How do I carve out large amounts of time where it doesn’t appear to exist? It seems, if you squint, you can find the time in quite tiny increments between all the other things pressing in.
How do I learn to think in the dark? Seek the magic of the daylight beyond the horizon.
The Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador (1917 - 1980) says,
“Christianity discerns that beyond the night
The dawn already glows.
The hope that does not fail is carried in the heart.
Christ goes with us!”
Now I can’t stop thinking of the dawn glowing beyond the inky black horizon of night. And somehow, by some miracle, outside of the laws of my fail proof formula, I’m writing this in the dark.