Things are ticking along just nicely, and next week I should have some preliminary results for the month of January regarding my trading record and progress with the Amazon business.
As all employees know well, it’s slowly getting closer to payday, and this month is the longest wait of the entire year, as wages tend to have come earlier in December. The miserable winter weather aside, a sense of being frozen in place is in the air.
Many people, myself included, have set themselves goals for the new year, and I can already see the results – the gym has never been busier!
And while it’s always admirable to strive for bettering one’s self, I’m sure that the regular gym goers are eagerly awaiting the quieter times that surely lie ahead. Because come February, most of us will have thrown in the towel.
But don’t just take any gym rats word for it – according to data from the IHRSA, 80% of the ‘New Years Resolutions’ crowd drops off by the second week of February. That’s without even mentioning that approximately 67% of people that have a gym membership don’t even use it!
It’s always been a wonder to me why some people stick to their resolutions, and others (most of us) don’t.
It’s like we all have the same desire to do better, but then lack the will to see it through to fruition.
I guess it’s much easier to go with the flow, than to swim against the tide…
Perhaps that’s why it can be easier to be a naysayer…
While the monkey who first climbed out onto the thinnest of branches and stretched out towards that tantalizing fruit (just out of reach) risked it all, the naysayer monkies were perfectly safe, happily perched on the trunk of a tree, watching their fellow lunatic – like the early hominid version of Netflix.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines!
Steven Wright
The thing about the naysayers, is that more often than not, they’re right! After all, it’s usually safer with the herd.
If you stay with the rest of the pack, you’ll be safe – at least for a while…
Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!!!
Mel Gibson as William Wallace, from the movie ‘Braveheart’
But sometimes, thankfully, the naysayers get it wrong.
Sometimes, it takes that extra spark, written somewhere into our DNA, that makes us stretch out – and reach to places where no one has been before.
And what happens when we stop listening to the naysayers?
What happens when we reach out?
We harness the power of fire.
We tame the wildest of beasts.
We circumnavigate the globe.
We move mountains.
We take to the skies.
We leave the planet itself, and it’s warm embrace, to reach out into the cold unknown.
It takes strength.
It takes courage.
It takes a certain amount of crazy.
But when we dare to reach for the stars, anything is possible.
In the words of one of the greatest humans to ever dare:
That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon.
