2011 Is Finally Here, So What Are You Going To Do About It?

I hope that I am one of the first to welcome you to 2011, a year that I think most of us are hoping is going to truly be the best year for all of us, at least in the past few years. For me, there is no room to complain about 2010, or 2009, or 2008, or 2007, and so on, really, but believe me when I say that I feel and agree with your sentimental optimism, America, in hoping that we all have a fantastic 2011.

If you’re working right now, then I hope you find yourself still working on 1/1/2012, and all of the days in-between. If you’re looking for work, I really hope this is the year that you find it – that you remember 2011 as the year that turned it all around. I think I can speak with confidence when I say that anyone I know that can have a hand in keeping the economy going, creating jobs, and getting us back on track, is going to continue working just as hard to make that happen this year as they were back in that dreaded year of yesteryear, 2010.

While not all of us had a particularly bad 2010, I know that the general sentiment about the year is that most people are happy to see it gone. I also tend to join in that point of view, if no reason other than I am hoping we see an even better 2011 for all of us.

For me, the trying years were 2004, 2005, and 2006, but again, looking back from where I sit today, there is truly no room for me to complain about those years. Good things still happened in those years, and I think even in the most trying of years for us, we can still find some good things. 2011, for me, is marking the year in which I stop reflecting back upon those trying years (other than to learn their lessons) and second-guessing what I could have done to change them, and instead, look forward to the milestones of the coming year.

2011 will see this missive turn 10 years old. How amazing is that? 2011 will mark the ever-lucky 13th year since I met my beautiful wife. 2011 marks the 23rd year that I will spend with some of my dearest friends. 2011 will mark the 26th year I am somebody’s older brother, the 6th year that someone will be calling me “Uncle” and the 4th year someone will be calling me “Nino”. That’s “Godfather” to you non-Spanish-speakers like me, and to people with Italian last names, it’s kind of a big deal.

While we all have to be mindful of our past, I think the lesson to take from the death of 2010, and to a lesser extent, from each New Year’s Day, is that this particular day really marks a time in which we need to turn our sights away from the past and look to the future. New Year’s Day marks a time to begin anew – to refresh our life-long goals and set an even stronger course than we pursued the year before. I hope that you will all join me in using today to do just that.