2014: The Year of Awesome!

With the New Year less than a month away, last week I started feeling the itch.  At first it was mild and easily distractible, but as the week progressed, it became irritatingly unavoidable.  In a moment of defeat, I admitted that it was time; time to make my 2014 New Year's resolution.

There it is...  The start of another year!

Though I NEVER seem to keep them and swear I'll NEVER make another, there's just something so irresistible about a New Year's resolution.  The way some people can't look away from the scene of a car accident (probably not the best analogy), I can't help thinking about and challenging myself to a new course of action each year starting January 1.

Trying to motivate, I purposely said out loud, "This is the year!"  This was the year I'd make a resolution that I'd keep!  Not yet fully convinced of my resolve, I decided to seek inspiration that hopefully would ensure my 2014 success.

This inspiration came in the form of countless online articles and blogs relevant to work and career.  What I found was well, underwhelming.  Similar to last year and the year before and the year before that each article and a few blogs provided a finite number of steps warranting career success in the New Year:  "10 Keys To Taking Career Control, 10 Resolutions That Will Jump Start Your Career, 5 Resolutions Everyone Should Make, 11 Resolutions Worth Keeping, 5 Inspiring Career Quotes..."

Though well intended, this advice like a bad fruitcake (or analogy) seem to fall short:  Be more organized, get a promotion, have a better work/life balance, get a raise, build a better relationship with your boss...  Was I the only reader feeling deflated?  Haven't we heard and unsuccessfully tried this same advice in the past?

I can't even remember the last time my handwriting looked like this!

Convinced I'd have nothing remotely revelatory to share in my new year, new you themed blog, "Great, no resolutions and no RANT!"  I thought.  A few nights later, I was sitting in a friend's living room telling her about my frustration while intermittently chatting with her third grade son.  Sitting on the floor building a Lego tank (Wow, Legos have come a long way since I was a kid!), he talked about school:  what subjects were his favorites, who his friends were, and what he liked and didn't for lunch.  Before I knew it, he was sitting next to me demonstrating the cursive he'd been learning.  As he created textbook loops and adeptly connected each letter, my heart melted.

"Why don't you write my name?"  I suggested.  "Okay, how do you spell it?"  No sooner had I release the first letter from my lips, when he sweet yet matter-of-factly interrupted, "We haven't learned that one yet."  "Alright, then show me what you have learned," I encouraged.  He sat for a minute, left leg bouncing in unconscious contemplation.  Overwhelmed by the possibilities, he impatiently asked, "What should I write?"  Giving the green light that ensures silliness from any nine year old, "Surprise me!" I said.  A smile instantly formed on his little face and head down, he started to write.

After resuming my discussion with his mom, he nudged my arm, "Can you help with the 'w'?"  Heart now in a puddle I was sure the Lego tank would soon drive through, I looked at his paper and in my best non-parent attempt to be a positive influence (even my posture mysteriously improved) I thoughtfully complied.  When he revealed his work, the mischievous glimmer in his eyes ensured that I'd absolutely love what he'd written, and I absolutely did.  In the most perfectly formed letters, center page I saw, "I am awesome."

I'm wearing this to my next networking event!

This statement and moment replayed in my head for days.  With my unfinished blog and undetermined resolutions still on the brain, I thought about his simple statement in a more profound way.

Instead of making the same uninspired resolution that ultimately I'd fail to keep, what if I decided to be awesome in 2014?  I know, hear me out...  What would this look like and what would it mean?  No self improving promises made on pure motivation or will power alone, but from the simple yet positive mindset of being awesome.  Broadening my pro-awesome stance I wondered, "If we thought we were awesome, could we get a new job, land a promotion, and peacefully coexist with our boss?  Surely there was an expert somewhere who  could substantiate my new outlook on awesome?

"I got a raise because I'm more AWESOME then my coworker Tom!"

Though he doesn't address awesome directly, Morris Cohen, L.S.C.W., does say that "people have problems bringing meaningful change [via New Year's resolutions] into their lives because they are struggling with negative believes about themselves," or as I would conclude, they are not in touch with their inner awesome.  Mr. Cohen continues by sharing, "negative beliefs often sabotage our attempts to change our behaviors without us even realizing it."

To change our behaviors and realize our true awesome, we need to chance what we tell ourselves.  So instead of, "I'm not smart enough to get a new job, I don't have enough experience to ask for a promotion, my boss likes my coworker Tom better!"  Why not, "I'm awesome and can get that new job; I have the experience and am awesome enough to ask for a promotion; my boss likes me because I'm awesome, more awesome then Tom!"  Yeah, if it were only this simple...  Well, isn't it?

Yes, this really exists!

Other then a blog from the Institute of Higher Awesome Studies, whose mission is to increase awesomeness worldwide, I couldn't find a single survey, study, or any research on being awesome.  Unrelenting, I decided to gather my own insights.  I asked people whose opinions matter to me, or those who'd respond, to answer the following:  "If you could (FILL IN THE BLANK) work or career-wise in 2014, you'd consider yourself awesome."


The responses I received ranged from the generic, "find more time in my day" to the specific, "I would consider myself extremely awesome if I could get my work team excited about mobility as I am." to the personally meaningful, "follow my heart."  Though I didn't get as many responses as I'd hoped (perhaps late Friday night isn't an ideal time for a survey), I clearly heard that awesome is predicated on achievement.  Maybe the better question and the one I should have asked is, "Since you're awesome, you will (FILL IN THE BLANK) work or career-wise in 2014."

Earlier this week, I finally made not a resolution, but a decision.  It certainly wasn't the science of my survey; more the spontaneous declaration of a third grader that inspired me.  I decided that in 2014, I simply would be awesome.  How is such a thing accomplished?  I'm not exactly sure, but think I'll start by working on my cursive.