by David Wine, President & CEO

A new year! Millions of people begin this day with new year resolutions. And even more so this year. After all, we are no longer in the “dawning of the Age of Aquarius” as the old song said. This is the Age of Aquarius. We are now Aquarians! And we survived the solstice – the world continued – so back to our resolutions! An article in the news today said more people were doing resolutions this year than ever before. Not sure how they know but surveys never lie, do they?!!

One of my resolutions this year is to remember that whatever I teach, I learn. So, for example, if I want peace in my life, I need to teach peace. If I want more love in my life, I need to teach love. If I want more patience, I need to teach patience. You get the picture. A very simple resolution, and oh so hard to really do in all aspects of my life. I would invite you to ‘try it on’ with me this year. Think about it. You can use this phrase –whatever I teach, I learn – on any subject area. It applies equally to the more negative as well as all the positive attributes we want in our human nature. If I want to learn about envy, for example, teach envy. People who teach conflict, learn conflict. My resolution, though, is to teach and learn the good attributes.

By teach I mean practice it, share it, apply it to your life. So for example, let’s say I want to learn to be more hopeful. The only way to ‘get there’ is to teach it. I could begin by teaching myself to practice daily gratitude for the things I have, not for what I don’t have. I could teach myself by more positive self-talk– that I am a wonderful, creation of God/Divine with many gifts and talents. I could teach myself by speaking positively around and to others of the possibilities of life and creation. I could teach myself (and others) through sharing my gifts and love with them. I could teach myself that things have worked out in the past and there are wonderful possibilities for the future.

Why is this statement, whatever I teach, I learn, so key? Because we learn something by doing it and being it. My own personal mission statement is to be totally loving and totally loveable. The way to reaching that resolution is not by memorizing words or reading about it, although those things can be helpful tools. The way to learn it is to teach it (do acts of love, share love, affirm love, be love). Too often in my life I have waited for things like love, joy, peace, patience, etc. to come to me. This statement reminds me that the way these things come to me is through proactively doing them/practicing them/giving them first. As I teach (give), I learn (receive). The gift comes from the action. If I want to feel (learn) joy, I must first give (teach) joy.

Happy New Year!