New Year, New Opportunity

By Dan Miller
48days.com

CBN.com – This week we are spending most of our time with family and friends – and know that many of you are doing the same. It’s a great time to just reflect on the blessings of this past year and anticipate the exciting things planned for 2009.

The great tragedy of the past year is not the recession or the loss of jobs. The greater tragedy is that we miss what we are capable of. Within all of us exists the capacity for uniqueness, for accomplishment, for loving relationships, and for creative and profitable income streams. Don’t fall victim to thinking that external circumstances can determine your degree of success in any of these areas.

In 2009 let your achievements, relationships with others, and personal peace be an inspiration and testimony to others of what’s possible when your heart is right, your motives are pure, and your goals are clear.

I pray that you will experience true success in each area of life in the New Year!

“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it.” — Michelangelo

A New Year’s Prayer

"A Morning Wish" by W.R. Hunt

"The sun is just rising on the morning of another day, the first day of the new year. What can I wish that this day, that this year, may bring to me?

Nothing that shall make the world of others poorer, nothing at the expense of others; but just those few things which in their coming do not stop with me but touch me rather, as they pass and gather strength:

A few friends who understand me, and yet remain my friends.
A work to do which has real value without which the world would feel the poorer.
A return for such work small enough not to tax unduly anyone who pays.
A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed.
A sight of the eternal hills and unbelting sea, and of something beautiful the individual hand has made.
A sense of humor and the power to laugh.
A little leisure with nothing to do.
A few moments of quiet, silent meditation. The sense of the presence of God.
And the patience to wait for the coming of these things, with the wisdom to know them when they come."

48 Days Online Radio: Lemonade and Donut Holes

Each week I create a new online radio podcast that you can hear in iTunes or at the 48 Days Online Radio Show.

This is an abbreviated holiday podcast that I called “Lemonade and Donut Holes.” Last week Joanne and I had our flight cancelled in Chicago – bringing into question whether we would be able to get home for Christmas Day. We saw spouses angry with each other, parents yelling at children, and overworked airline employees short-tempered with customers.

If circumstances determine our level of happiness, then we are all very vulnerable. If circumstances threaten our closest relationships, then they were not built on solid principles originally. Only as we look past the day-to-day challenges will we have the confidence that nothing can derail us. Focusing on our priorities and long-term goals, we can hold our heads high and keep moving forward with joy and positive anticipation.

This podcast is about 20 minutes of encouragement to make lemonade when life tosses you a few lemons.

If you have a question, just click on the 48 Days Online Radio link and you can ask about starting your own business, getting a better job, or finding your purpose in life. That’s the same place you can listen to this week’s broadcast immediately – no downloading, no wait.

Quotes: The New Year

“Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.” — Edith Lovejoy Pierce

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul . . . . Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” — G.K. Chesterton

Dan Miller is the bestselling author of 48 Days To The Work You Love and a renowned Life Coach specializing in career fulfillment. His weekly newsletter reaches 70,000 subscribers. Dan’s articles are featured here at CBN every Tuesday, and you can find out more about Dan at www.48days.com.