Welcome to 2019! ¹

I've spent the afternoon sitting at my desk doing a mix of reading and high level planning for a few projects I know that are coming up this year. A lot of what I've been reading are the affirmations of what everyone is going to do next year - I'm going to write more, make more time for reading, spend more time with my kids. I read through the posts, tweets, and chats and I was starting to get envious of the ambition everyone was going to have in 2019. As I sat there I realized I was taking the wrong approach to 2019.

One of the traditions in my martial arts school is the instructors share an inspiration quote each week. A couple of years ago one of the instructors shared this quote from Bruce Lee:

It's not the daily increase but daily decrease.
Hack away at the unessential.

I'm not sure how the quote popped back into my head, but this is how I feel I'll gain ground on my goals for the year. By doing less of the inconsequential, I'll make time for what I value.