Hit the Ground Running in the New Year

Happy New Year, everyone; welcome to 2023. Are you excited about what this year will bring? I am, and I hope you’ll come on the journey with me.  

As we tend to do with the New Year, we’ll set goals, or perhaps intentions, for what we’re going to accomplish. As your coach, I’d like to challenge you right from the start because… why not?

Here’s a reality that I want everyone, including myself, to know and embody. It's not about what you know, it’s about what you do. 

They say actions speak louder than words. Isn't that so true? When we see someone do what they say, we greatly respect that person. What becomes even more inspiring is when we see them fall, get up, and try again. Therefore, leadership and personal growth is so difficult. If you fall, people judge you for it and it becomes that much harder to get back up and try again. To me, it boils down to personal integrity. If someone does not do what they say, we say they lack integrity, which is a strong and hurtful judgment. 

Since we fear being labeled as someone with a lack of integrity, it’s sometimes easier to never start doing something we know is important rather than starting something and not finishing it. Think about it. Let’s say you set a goal to lose 20 pounds. If you start to work out, then stop, and you never lose the weight, people might say that’s a lack of discipline, which could be boiled down to a lack of integrity. So why try when you know you’re just going to fail?

I also think this is why we have so many armchair quarterbacks. It’s easier for me to tell you what you’re doing wrong, rather than me doing it right for myself. Let me tell you how to play better while I eat my pizza and wings, drink my beer, and watch the game.

If you’ve been hanging around with me since the beginning, you’ve heard me talk about how leadership starts with leading yourself first. If you can’t lead yourself, the most difficult person to lead, it becomes much more difficult to lead others. That’s why I want to challenge all of us, including myself, not just to know things, but to do things as well. I’d like to explain more, but I don’t think I could do a better job than Franklin Roosevelt. This is an excerpt from his speech called, “Citizens in a Republic,” which was later known as, “The Man in the Arena.”

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 

I tear up every time I read this because it’s a reminder that we were built for something great. If you’ve been sitting back, wanting to do something different this year, please spend some time with this quote. When you’re ready, this invitation will always be available to you: Come join me in the arena. 

Cheers to a 2023 full of growth and daring greatly.

Kevin helps people gain clarity on what they want in life, craft a plan, and support in the execution of the plan while dusting himself off to re-enter the arena. Contact him at kevinkoocoaching@gmail.com