The closing of a year comes up quick in the end. One-minute, father time seems to be dragging its heels and Groundhog Day goes around and around. Then like a shot out of the blue, the year’s end is snapping at our heels and like an old overcoat, the weariness of the year that’s been starts to wrap around our bodies.
When I was in my 20’s I left to travel Australia to explore our great country. Travelling through the long dusty roads in west Queensland where the roads are straight for as far as the eye can see and narrow enough for one car. The traffic, nil, except the road trains, three carriages long.
I loved the experience of the outback, the wilderness where it felt free.
After Mt Isa, the road keeps heading west until you hit the Northern Territory border. Not far in, the three ways shows up. This is where the road stops being straight and long, and it becomes an intersection, and I am faced with a choice. Left, or right?
Each road will take me somewhere different. How do I know which road to take? It’s easy really. I know where I want to get to, so I know which way I have to turn.
I knew from the time I left home where I was going, my destination had already been decided.
When I left my hometown, I was prepared for the three ways. My destination was clearly to my left. I was heading south to Alice Springs and Uluru. All my preparation in my pre-journey intel gathering made my decision simple.
Let’s use the same analogy for this closing year. It is offering three ways to view the choices coming up.
If you look one way it’s the end of a calendar year, look the other way, and it is midway through a financial year and yet another view is to see the beginning of a bright and potential future just at the horizon level.
Metaphorically, we are presented with three ways of choice.
These three viewpoints present you with a mixed bag of goodies.
A closing year gives you the time for reflection of what has been.
There is the midway financial year offering to consider the present strategies you are using – are they working or not?
There is also the offering of potential possibilities for a new and exciting future.
Each of these roads are presenting you with your ultimate roadmap to your destination.
Review the year that has been, redo the strategic approach mid-stream and get ready to renew the opportunity with a fresh start.
Even if you are weary from the year that smashed the world about, there is an intersection in front of you and, figuratively speaking, there always is. Do your planning and choose your outcomes. Yes, you will hit some potholes along those long and straight roads that seem to go on forever, but your intersection is just ahead. Which way will you choose?
