The purpose of life, after all, is to love it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. Eleanor Roosevelt.

The advent of a new year is a natural time to be thinking, what’s next?

These are challenging times. Whether you feel the need to step up your game, or are consciously considering setting out in a new direction, succeeding in today’s environment calls for courage, imagination and critical thinking.

Life is complicated. It tugs at us from many directions. All any of us can do is march as close to the beat of our own drum as we can. Life isn’t about finding yourself. It’s about creating yourself, getting crystal clear about what you want to do – and then doing it.

There is no magic bullet. It is up to you. Success, however you define and measure it, comes from within; from having the personal power that comes from a place of a well-defined purpose, doing the necessary work and sometimes, when it is necessary, some wild-eyed, moonshot thinking.

Vow today to make 2017 your best year ever.

Now that you’re here… as 2017 dawns, if this is resonating and you are looking for some fresh ideas to enrich your life and expand your horizon, I invite you to continue to read my blog. If you are in the Toronto region, I am speaking at the Toronto Reference Library, Hinton Learning Centre on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 from 6:00-7:30 pm. It’s for doers who want to do more. I look forward to seeing you there.

Have you made a conscious decision to improve your personal performance, be your best and live up to your full potential? Learn how at my 3RDAGEWorkshop. Need help moving on to what’s next and would like to work with me? Let’s chat. Text/Call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com.

It has not been an easy year and 2022  promises only more changes, challenges and turbulent times. No one knows how it will all go. Only time will tell, but each day the sun is going to come up and set. It will be what it will be. As always, we hope for the best. Hope is the oxygen of the human spirit.

However or wherever greetings and good wishes are expressed at this time of year, or in whatever language, as the old year winds down and the new year beckons, the message is as universal and timeless as the message in this medieval Celtic blessing:

May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door, and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas.

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.

I will see you back here in January.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you’re capable of becoming. Nelson Mandela.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Passion inspires innovation and fosters courage. It generates energy.

It is only when you are  fully engaged with your work, whatever form it takes, that you can pass along the great feeling to your existing and prospective clients and those around you whom you love.

If you’re just going through the motions, doing the same old things the same old ways you will gradually lose your spirit.

Change doesn’t come without overcoming your fears. Get over them. Don’t let them hold you back. If the status quo isn’t doing it for you anymore, resolve today to get back to what you know you are all about.

Paint a brighter picture of yourself and your present situation.

Resolve today to fix what’s wrong, whatever it takes. Do more of what’s right. And then some. Remember that 80% of success (however you measure it) comes from just showing up.

There is no time for green bananas. Get going. Get out there. Throw off sparks.

Have you made a conscious decision to improve your personal performance, be your best and live up to your full potential? Learn how at my 3RDAGEWorkshop. Need help moving on to what’s next and would like to work with me? Let’s chat. Text/Call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com.

The late Bernard Baruch who, in his late eighties, and still advising former US presidents, was once asked how old he thought ‘old’ was. He replied, “old is fifteen older than I am.”

That thought occurred to me the other day as I was standing in line at the cash desk, waiting to pay for a bottle of wine. There was an attractive, younger woman ahead of me buying a bottle as well.

As she was taking the money out of her purse, the cashier politely asked her for identification, thinking that she might be under age. In Ontario you have to be at least 19 years of age to purchase wine or liquor.

“I hope you don’t think I’m being personal,” he said. “It’s the law.”

Now, I’m not good at guessing ages but she didn’t look anymore than 35 to me. From my vantage point she is just getting started.

Her face immediately lit up. Laughing, as she handed over her ID card, she replied, “Mind. Are you kidding? I’m flattered. The way my week’s going, I feel like I’m 40.”

She’s not alone. At some point we all reach an invisible, or not so invisible wall, where we begin to feel that that we are getting old. Or think we are. Especially in this day and age.

The truth is though, aging doesn’t happen at any given hour or day or decade. The process is not biologically set in stone. It’s all about continuing to learn and grow and being willing to adapt to change.

We all have a choice. It is a personal decision. We all age, of course, but we can decide to get old – or older. It’s a mindset. We can’t stop the clock, but we can remain young at heart.

So here’s a question for you:

If you didn’t know how how old you were, what age would you be?

Want to maximize your potential and get more out of life? Learn how at my 3RDAGEWorkshop. Need help moving on to what’s next? Let’s chat. Text/Call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com.

How often I found where I should be going by setting out for somewhere else. Buckmaster Fuller.

Throughout your lifetime, the most difficult choice you will ever have to make is deciding whether you should let go or hold on a little longer.

In the end, you will only regret the chances you didn’t take, relationships you were afraid to have and the decisions you waited too long to make.

If there’s something you just intuitively know you should do but have been holding back, isn’t it time?

Want to maximize your potential and get more out of life? Learn how at my 3RDAGEWorkshop. Need help moving on to what’s next? Let’s chat. Text/Call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com.