Moving from NEW to NOW

Aren't Mondays great? They have been my favorite day of the week for a very long time. I love the sparkle and brightness of their newness. A clean slate. A fresh start.

With each one, I think of Maya Angelou's words: "This is a new day. I have never seen this one before." That's what Mondays are all about for me. NEW.

It's the same with anything new, really. A new journal. A new book. A new piece of clay. Even a new challenge!

As I've thought about why NEW holds such appeal for me, I realized it's because nothing says POSSIBILITIES quite like new.

Except I'm not sure that's altogether accurate. I think perhaps what holds even more possibilities than new is NOW.

The best possibilities live in the now, don't they? Where we live. Where we work. Where we MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!

Perhaps that's the true value of new. It can move us into a different NOW that can mean whatever we want it to mean. But first, we must move there. We must move from the NEW to our NOW to create its optimal value.

So, how do we do that? It's simple, really. We act. However small, action is the only thing that can move us anywhere.

Why does action matter so much? Nothing happens without it. Haven't you also found that the best motivation to keep moving forward with anything is the progress we make? It all comes down to action.

Michelle Gielan is a positive psychology researcher and author that penned these words as a reminder:

"A now step is the smallest meaningful action you can take. It reminds the brain that your behavior matters as you experience a win from completing it."

The other often unsung hero of action is this: Our best choices live in our actions.

Once you start acting, it may seem magical how things begin to happen. But it's not magic at all. It's a simple result, and the beauty is that anyone can do it. One colleague has said that every time they have taken the initiative to launch something (act), new things have emerged as possibilities without exception.

Isn't that incredible? What a gift it is just to take that first step and move from NEW to NOW.

January is its own kind of new. This time, it's not just a day or a moment or a creative endeavor. It's a brand-new year.

Let's celebrate January for all its newness. And then get busy moving to its NOW. Let's make things happen!