The Next Year
“And, Here. We. Go.” -The Joker, as played by Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
If you don’t like this post, you can blame my five year old daughter, Laurel. She loves music and has this uncanny ability to memorize the entire lyrics of a song after one or two listens. It’s really unbelievable but I watch her do it all the time. She loves all kinds of music but has this knack for signing ear worms on repeat for days on end. One of those songs she’s been hooked on as of late is High Hopes by Panic! at the Disco.
From the moment she started belting it out, it was instantly stuck in my head. Even before I heard the actual song. She convinced me to download it to my phone and the rest is history. I played it for her a few times and then I was also hooked. Therefore, you get this post.
So as our quote at the start of this article says… And. Here. We. Go.
Let me start out by saying, that I abhor platitudes like, “You got this!.” “You can do it!” “Every cloud has a silver lining.” “Everything happens for a reason.” “Life doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” Or, “Pain is weakness leaving the body.”
I’m going to do my best to avoid this post being a bunch of platitudes. That said, this song High Hopes really started feeling inspiring to me the more I listened to it. And right now, as I write this, it’s on repeat in my airpods.
The song starts:
“Had to have high, high hopes for a living. Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing. Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision.”
This hit me hard and I am confident that I am not the only one who feels this way. I’ve always said in my life that the things I loved doing for work were never the things that could make me enough money to live. Still I found myself shooting for unattainable goals. Everyone told me that those goals were too big, too crazy, and that I should be more realistic.
But I didn’t listen to the naysayers. I fought on, I persisted, and you know what happened? I failed at most of those goals. Like almost every single one. It can feel incredibly defeating. I am certain some of you reading this know exactly that feeling I am talking about.
But the song continues:
“Mama said. Burn your biographies. Rewrite your history. Light up your wildest dreams. Museum victories, every day.”
There’s some good advice in those few sentences. Burn your biographies. Rewrite your history. So you failed, you failed a lot, you failed hard. Who cares? There’s nothing wrong with failure. Let me tell you that some of the most difficult people I have met in my life are those who have never experienced true failure. And by that I mean failure where it really hurt. Where it was life changing. Those are the people who tell you to just “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” and other unhelpful platitudes.
Understand this: Failure is a gift. It’s a critical part of the process of growth. Try your damnedest not to regret it. Instead, soak it in, feel bad, lament over it, and then move forward.
But how?
Museum victories. No matter how much you are failing in life, there are still victories. They may be small, they may feel insignificant and forgettable. To combat this, write them down somewhere. Start a victory journal. Make it your own personal museum of success. Nothing is too small. Sometimes we all need reminders of what we have accomplished.
And finally, “Mama said. Don’t give up. It’s a little complicated.”
I know, I know, this one is dangerously close to being a platitude but what I love is that last sentence. Because it is a little a complicated. In fact most of the time, it’s a lot complicated. Your goals, your dreams, your loves, all of it is so complex that it can be overwhelming.
Speaking of complex and overwhelming, 2019 was quite the year. So many negative things happening around the world. So many bleak predictions for the coming years. And 2020 is an election year, which if you ask anyone on any side, they will likely tell you that it is a very pivotal year and I agree with that assessment.
In the face of all this negativity it can hard to have “High Hopes” for the next year. I know I have had moments where I have wondered what the point of it all is. For that reason, this post is just as much a reminder for me that I need to approach this next year with unwarranted positivity because I know that will not only help me survive the next year, but will also help me accomplish new things. It will help me achieve new victories, even if they are small.
I want the same for you too. So this year, I am going to focus many of my posts on ways to help keep you moving forward. I’ll talk about things that are working for me, and areas where I am struggling. I believe together, we can thrive in the next year.
All I ask from you is that starting tomorrow, you do your best to hit 2020 head on and burn it to the damn ground.
I’ll be there with you, holding the matches.
-Jason