The graphic today, like so many this time of year, focuses upon change and challenges us to make changes in our lives to achieve a new beginning.
Making a fresh start does not have to mean abandoning everything in your life to start anew. It does, however, mean making some meaningful changes in your attitude as well as your daily routines. It is important that these be conscious decisions made out of the understanding that the old direction of your life was not taking you where you want to be.
Making a fresh start may mean having to increase your education level or learning new skills. It may mean not only changing your job but pursuing an entirely new career. It may mean leaving old relationships behind, especially if they were toxic and holding you back. It almost always means venturing into unknown territory. Because of that change will be a little bit scary, but it will also be exciting.
There is a tendency in many to understand that change is happening all around them and to decide to just “go with the flow” and allow those changes to dictate the direction of their life. They are like people floating down a river on an innertube, satisfied to let the river decide where they will end up. Others actively resist the flow of change, becoming luddites, resisting the changes of technology and modernization. Still others get swept up by the change, sort of like being caught in a tsunami wave, and are carried along to change. That often happens when entire industries or industry segments become obsolete and are replaced by new industries.
What is inevitable for all is that changes in our lives will happen. How we react to those changes, or the opportunities for change, is up to us. Deciding to use those changes to make a fresh start may be just one choice, but it would seem to be the best choice. That means seeing change not as a threat but as an opportunity. How do you see the changes that are taking place in your life?
Make a fresh start.
Posted by Norm Werner 
but it is more likely that we haven’t positioned ourselves to take advantage of it. H. Jackson Brown, Jr. put it this way – “Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.” Brown was pointing out that we need to be working at it, building that door, in order for opportunity to present itself. I also like this piece of advice about that dance with opportunity from Wayne Dyer – “When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.” 
who believe.” A great way to start each day is to reaffirm your faith in God and in His hand in your success. That pause to be in contact with God and reaffirm your faith will allow you to take the all-important first step on your journey to success. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way – “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” 
What I like about this quote is that it is actionable. It doesn’t just say sit there and wait if you want an opportunity, build a door for it to knock upon. That may mean taking classes or doing the prep work that is needed to be ready. It may mean putting in the extra effort that gets noticed when opportunity arrives. It could mean doing some of the things that you really don’t like to do, because opportunity demands that they be done first.
else or maybe something like a better job. The gap represents either skills and knowledge that we don’t have or maybe just self-confidence that we lack. The gap may be relatively narrow or very wide, but we feel stuck on one side and what we want is on the other side.
So, the point is that we must make the effort. Things are not going to fall into our laps just because we sit around lamenting what we don’t have. Build a bridge or a door. Get up and do something to move towards your goals and improve your chances of success. Find joy in the effort and take to heart the words of Theodore Roosevelt –
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