New Years is a time for resolutions and reflections. Usually people spend the month of January trying to adhere strictly to the new idea of who it is they want to be. New gym memberships and exercise routines, new diet plans and a huge purge of possessions, and new enrollments in language classes and stricter bedtimes are all well and good, but generally I find a new perspective does more than any resolution list could. So, instead of writing about all the to-dos and endless goals I have, something that I don’t review in December but rather revisit regularly throughout the year, I’m writing about the kind of attitudes necessary for true change. It’s not enough just to read these mantras and say, “oh yeah, that makes sense” and expect some real change to come about, you have to really adhere to these adages, you have to shift your perspective and make these mantras more important than whatever excuses your feeble ego could muster, because on some level you know that the mantras you really understand are the ones you really need to hear. So good luck with your 2010 endeavours, happy new year, and may these mantras help you on your way to whatever dreams you’re currently pursuing.

1. It’s never a good time. (via tiny coop)
If you’re waiting to do something, to buy something, to be something, to start something, essentially if you’re putting anything on hold until the stars magically align and the path before you is clear, you’ll be waiting forever. I’m a firm believer in living now and not slaving away, longing for some idea of the promised land 14 years, 40 years, your entire life later. The truth is, it’s never a good time to buy a car, to have a baby, to finish that project. It’s never the right moment to say that, or to let go of this, so don’t lie in wait. Recognise there is no perfect moment, and waiting for it is just another way to procrastinate actually doing what you need to do. Life is never fully-baked, so why are you waiting for the kitchen timer to buzz? It’s never cooked through, so just take it out when it looks right and worry about eating it later.

2. Do what feels right. (via my university mates)
It seems simple, but “do what feels right” is one of the most complicated mantras to not just believe, but to truly live. There are at least one million reasons to do what feels important, or what feels comfortable, or what feels logical. But what feels right is often just the thing we need. It feels right for a reason, so stop denying who you are and just go with it. Do what feels right, and the rest — the joy, the success, the freedom, the fulfillment — will follow.

3. Put the paint on the barn. (via family friends)
Two guys go to paint a barn one guy spends a lot of time carefully picking out paint, searching around the garage for the right-sized rollers, and trying to find the ladder. The other guy grabs the first can of paint and the first paintbrush he can find and goes to start painting the barn. When the day is over, one guy has painted half the barn, and the other guy has barely started. Whenever you’re faced with a task, before you spend hours agonising over it, ask yourself whether it’s more important to pick out the paint or to put the paint on the barn. More often than not, you’d do better to just put any paint on the barn. It doesn’t matter if you’ve found the perfect shade of mauve, or if you can’t reach the roof yet, the simple truth is that your barn will remain in disrepair until you put the paint on it.

4. Fail better. (via Adam Gottesfeld)
The little diddy goes something like “if you aren’t failing, there’s no way you can be succeeding.” There’s some truth to that; people who are wildly successful have failed quite a bit more in their lives than the average Joe who hasn’t pursued enough to fail more than once or twice. I’m not advocating you just throw statistics at the problem and try more so you can fail more, what I’m suggesting is that you stop counting failures and instead start qualifying them. Don’t worry about failing, worry about failing better. Did you learn from the experience? Were you in the know when all was tanking? How will your next attempt be better? So you failed, who cares. What matters is that you failed better — better than the last time, better than the other guy, better than you expected, whatever better matters in your field — failed in a higher quality way each time around. Everyone fails, so make your failures count.

5. Any number is better than zero. (via Gary Vaynerchuk)
Unlike failure, where not all failures are equal, progress is progress no matter what progress it is. Any progress is better than no progress. One dollar is better than no dollars. A handful of followers are better than no followers. Hell, even negative numbers are better than zero; they at least tell you something, usually that you’re doing something wrong, while zero means that you’re stagnate. No movement, no improvement, no progress. The number itself doesn’t matter so much as the fact that it isn’t zero. And if you’re back at zero, keep moving, anywhere, somewhere, because any number is better than zero.