I was thinking how fast the years seem to fly by, I turned 58 in November, and that’s why I babble alot more these days, please indulge me. It boggles the mind how fast the world is moving, including mine. Oh I’m grateful, and I’m even a little excited, and I have been really excited for many, many years. Each year we praise the year that was, and we anticipate the next year that will be, without really knowing what we plan on doing.

Most of us don’t really have a plan, most of us tend to act by emotion, and that’s where we get into trouble. I’m not suggesting a plan solves the problem of not getting into trouble, but I am suggesting you actually give some thought on what goals you would like to achieve. Maybe even make a bucket list instead of a goal list, they’re both the same to me.

I started doing something this year I NEVER thought I would do, I went and got a gym membership…I know right? Now I’m the kind of guy who loves sports, so….exercise always involved a sport, it’s a law right? Well, I never thought I would enjoy going to a gym, but I do! I go 5 to 6 times a week, go figure!

Why did I do that? In March of 2001 I had a heart attack, that’s old news. But this year, my health was bothering me, I wasn’t….I hadn’t changed anything in my routine or structure to improve my health. I just lived my life, year in and year out thinking I’ll get to it eventually. As a young man, I was an athlete, I mean I played Hockey, Baseball, Football, Soccer (did I mention I hate soccer), I just loved playing sports, and I was always in good shape….until I stopped playing sports. It’s funny how those of us who call ourselves athletes can go into denial almost immediately when it comes to how good of shape we may or may not be in. But I won’t get into that : )

So a few months ago (2), my wife and I dropped into the Club 16 Trevor Linden Gym for a tour….no reason, just a spur of the moment drive-by. We went in, got the tour, and I said sign us up, I also said, hurry up before I change my mind. I knew if I didn’t sign-up on the spot, I would never do it.

This morning I was staring out my kitchen window thinking how we start and stop things every year, some we finish and some we don’t. We begin, and we end….it’s a process of life really, there’s life, and then there’s death, there’s an end, and there’s a beginning. What we never really do is, evaluate what’s good for us when we think about our goals, we always gravitate to what feels good over what’s good for us. We handle our entire lives that way, we handle our finances the same way, so we get into the cycle of ending and beginning, never really stabilizing, never really getting our bleep together, just drifting and wandering, thinking it will all work out fine. I used to believe that, now at 58….I don’t…you have to have purpose in your life, you have to make people your business, you should put order to your beginnings and ending.

So here we are at the end of 2015, in a few weeks. A new year is coming, do you have a healthy outlook of what’s ahead, do you have some goals in mind, a bucket list if you will. How will you begin? In the sporting world there is an analogy, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, but you MUST start.

As Seth Godin says, go out and make a ruckus, make a mess, life is moving far too fast, before you know it, you will run out of time. And the real issue, we are ALL running out of time, I am running out of time. Consider  time before setting your goals / bucket list, and then challenge yourself, not how will you start, but how will you finish….and then ask yourself one big question, “How many people will be better off because I lived?”