The One Thing That Will Make 2020 Your Best Year Yet

No more resolutions. No more challenges. No more gimmicks.

I’ve been thinking a long time about what to write for The New Year.

It seems fashionable to hate resolutions these days, and admittedly, I’m tired of talking about them. Not because I don’t find them valuable — I do, in some cases — but mainly because it’s been done. And honestly, we’re not very good at ordering ourselves to do something. Maybe for a while, but we often need more than a simple New Year’s command to act differently for the rest of our lives.

So what, then? What’s the one thing that could make the next year better than any other? Per usual, something has been gnawing at me for months. Digging its way into everything I do. I write about it in different ways without really noticing. It’s present in the stories I read and podcasts I listen to. It’s everywhere, and it’s that important.

So here goes. This New Year, listen to yourself.

Yeah, that’s it. Kind of a letdown, huh? Let me explain, and maybe it will hit you like it did me.

Call it conscience. Call it a moral compass. Call it the voice of reason. Call it Doug, whatever, just start listening to it. You know the one I’m talking about, it’s the voice that tells you what you don’t want to hear. The feeling you get when you’re about to do something terrible.

Socrates called his voice his Daemon, and it never told him what to do exactly; instead, Socrates explained, it always told him what NOT to do.

When the powers that be were fed up with Socrates disrupting the status quo, they gave him a choice; stay and die, or leave and live. Everyone expected him to run, even his friends. But instead of reacting live everyone else, Socrates consulted his Daemon — his voice that always told him what NOT to do.

“Don’t run,” it said. So Socrates listened. And they killed him for it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! How is that helpful?

Consider this, Socrates was old and had lived a good life. This was a chance to get out before things took a turn for the worse. He also knew exactly when he was going to go and got to say good to his friends, after living an entire life he could be proud of. A life we study to this day, that’s helped more than a few, simply because he listened to his voice.

Imagine what you and I, whatever everyone could do, if we listened to the voice that told us what NOT to do.

It’s been a rough day. Work was busy, but nothing got done, you spilled your coffee on the way, you sat behind an accident on the way home, and your wife burnt dinner. You want to take everything out on her, but your voice says otherwise. It says, “STOP, your bad day isn’t her fault. It’s just chicken. Suck it up, hero.”

Try listening.

You don’t need someone else to tell you that cake is precisely the opposite of what you need if you’re trying to lose weight. Someone has been saying it all along and that someone is you. You know better. You always know better. Don’t override yourself and justify your voice of reason into submission.

Try listening.

That’s why so many meditate, by the way. Because we already know the answer, we just have to hear ourselves say it.

Think about it like this, every time you’ve ever said, “I knew better,” you were right. You did. You just don’t listen. Well, not anymore. Not this year. This year you’re going to finally start listening to the smartest guy in the room. And that guy is you. He knows you better than anyone, and he only wants the best for you. And he’s always got something to say.