Happy New Year! The sentiment is everywhere; but what makes for a happy and prosperous New Year and life anyway?  Is it goals? Is it claiming “abundance”? Is it simplicity?

What makes for true happiness and prosperity?

I see it increasingly in social media. Constantly professing the perfection of one’s life is almost as dangerous as constantly bemoaning how imperfect it is. Truly, positive thinking must embrace the ups and downs, ebbs and flows, ying and yang as sources of strength and wisdom.  Pain and pleasure are both part of life. Bad things happen to “good people” and good things happen to us all. Life is not what happens to us but how we find our character to walk through it.

True championship does not happen without challenge. “Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity” still implies adversity and Garth Brooks captured this in The Dance. It also implies that gratitude is not simply “counting our blessings” in some traditionally conceived way.  Blessings come in pleasure and pain.  It is about how we face and engage life that defines us. We are not defined by our circumstances, but by how we meet them. Still, those same circumstances exist and are not to be pretended away.

Perfection is a myth… but perfecting is the path and that requires trial and triumph… and being of help and asking for it. It is what great strategic leadership is all about. It is what superior tactics are indeed about. It is in the sharpening of the blades and going to work that we find our strength and our success; at work, business, school, community and life.

Therein is the epic life and story. Therein is what truly unites us.

May your year be positively epic.

Peace, passion and prosperity.

Barry Lewis Green, aka The Unity Guy™