• fill 'er up

Another full year ahead, another day, another week begins. Orders to fill, clients' expectations to fulfill, can't eat any more I'm full.

My long time friend, Michael Marzella, sent me the perfect birthday card. (Click on image to expand to full size.) With a birthday at the cusp of each new year (the fourth day of the year) I take time to plan, dream and reflect on last year's thoughts. How did I want to fill 2009 and did it all get fulfilled? 

Enter 2010: another "glass" to fill.

Another glass half full or half empty.

In school—third grade—a visiting scientist invited me on stage in front of the entire student body. Pouring water into a glass he asked me, "Is the glass half full or half empty?"

I had never seen this exercise before, I was eight. But I knew right away what I thought, "It's half the size it needs to be."

"Excuse me." The science man said.

"Well,  I'm gonna want a lot more water than it will hold."

I like a big glass. Lots of possibilities, room to move on around in.

And you? What will you fill your "twenty-ten" mug with in the coming weeks and months?

A suggestion: Never see it as a to do list—certainly not must do or should do list. Your "glass"—your dreams and plans—are all possibilities. If you are a New Year's resolutions setter, this glass is for you. You believe it is possible to fill the glass fuller and do grander, more interesting, more full-filling work this year.

I use "work" here generically, not isolated to merely professional pursuits. Raising children is work (important work), hobbies and sports are work. Art is work. Great art is hard work. I often tell young artists:

       It's supposed to be hard, it's ART!

I said it to an old artist friend in a challenging role in a Broadway show (on Broadway in New York.) It renewed his commitment to the production. It was just Wednesday afternoon, not Opening Night, and he became very excited about the rest of the run.

We get excited about the New Year, the new number (2010)—especially when the  number ends in a zero. Pinch me. But actually we get a new beginning, if you will, every thirty days or so when there's a new moon. Or, how about: the sun rising for a new day.

But we can hit the reset button (there's one below if you need) at any hour of any day that we choose to fill the glass a little more. Even 5:30 PM on a Wednesday.

It can be the possibility to work a bit harder, smarter, more creatively, or color (live) much farther outside the box—cubicle, guidelines, assumptions. (The "rules" by which we are actually guided are mostly "assumptions," not actual rules. Assumptions are "The way we've always done it around here." Challenge that.) 

Grab your glass and fill it a bit more than you did yesterday.

Suddenly I'm quite thirsty.

See my two previous posts:

    • reset and

    • why i believe in resolutions (below.)

Comments

[Niki]

Sheesh! How do you do that? You're like my own personal Tony Robbins/Jiminy Cricket/Fairy Godmother/Kung Fu Master/shot in the arm. Just when I need inspiration and a good kick in the butt, I'm moved to stop by here and WHAM! I'm able to move forward with a little more boldness and I'm reminded why I am who I am. Thanks again McNair. Don't EVER stop creating and inspiring!

[Charity McAllister]

I thought I was the only one excited by the '2010'.
(I say it 20-10) It sounds like a James Bond movie. Not the crappy new ones, but the Roger Moore/Sean Connery kind. Maybe even a black and white Clark Gable/Humphrey Bogart/Cary Grant kind of movie. The possibilities are endless. A new year, a new mind set; full of all the possibilities we didn't have last year. It's 2010. :)

[Paul Innes]

Its 2010 oh my. Stopped by for a sip and drank in WOW. I will need a bigger cup. From where I sit I can see I think it looks like forever. Mcnair you touch my heart and bless my soul. I'm late, I'm late I know I cannot wait so I'l so hello good bye I'm late, I'm late I'm . . .Oh just on time. Blessings Paul