Happy New Year –  Gong Xi Fa Ca! 

- that’s the traditional Chinese New Year greeting that means “wishing you prosperity” in Mandarin.   And yes, it seems only right that I recognize the first day of the Chinese New Year – February 10  (and I did not have to wait till tomorrow to post this as it’s already February 10 in China).  I wish you Happy New Year for a few reasons – first, the holiday is celebrated by over 1.3 billion people – if we did not join such a large group we would feel left out.  Imagine, more than one sixth of the world’s population celebrating together.   Second, I think it is cool that it is the year of the Snake – an often misunderstood creature.  Those born in the year of the Snake are believed to be thoughtful and stylish yet complex characters.  Third, the holiday is marked by the largest annual mass migration on earth, as hundreds of millions of people travel to spend the New Year with their families. 

 

So, what to make of all of this info?  The factoids are interesting in their own right but I feel there is a bigger point embedded herein. 

 

 As I have written before, confidence comes from the believe something is possible – well if you can move hundreds of millions of people all at the same time in an orderly fashion, get more than 1 billion people to celebrate the same holiday, convince people being a snake is thoughtful and stylish – then anything is possible that  Too often I hear people say  – That is not possible, I cannot do that, It will never happen.  And so I suggest that when you hear this negative attitude, challenge the approach and thinking.  Think hard about how you Can do something not how you Cannot do something   And so with your new found challenge I wish you a Happy New Year .

 

Please do celebrate Chinese New Year as it will put you in a very special group of people who have chosen to ignore the traditional constraints of life to live a wonderful and meaningful tradition in style and substance

 

OK, so keeping with the theme that anything is possible I set out to take on one of my favorite challenges this morning – 100 pullups in 10 minutes.  I have worked for many years on this challenge and I have made it infrequently.  Today, I was feeling good and it all came together.  101 pull-ups in 9:55 minutes, then add in a  six mile run and two hours on the spin bike and the thought of getting mixed up with the Sally challenge was daunting.  I was worried – might be too tired – too weak – not up to it.  Then I re-framed my thoughts – It will be interesting to see how well I can do, how strong I am, how it will feel to try two challenges in one day.  And so go for it I did and to my surprise I made it to the end.  Then I thought, do I need to do more pushups?  And well, at this point I was all in and so I took no shortcut and got to 165 pushups in 4:17.  I am done and happy for it. 

 

Till Tomorrow!

 

Loving life

 

Joe