Inspiration is all around us, we just have to ensure we are alert so that we are able to appreciate it.

I was getting ready to iron this morning and behind me, I realized my family had put up the 2017 Calendar. As I gazed at the calendar, my eyes were taken by the quotation next to the big 2017 inscription. The quotation read:

“Action without vision is only passing time, vision without action is merely day dreaming, but vision with action can change the world.” Nelson Mandela.

I thought to myself…well this is such an interesting and powerful piece of wisdom. Often we get told to pursue greatness, whether that’s through succeeding in business, or a career or an academic venture. But, how many of us actually stop and think about why we wake up and do the things we do. We have become such a Go! Go! Generation…but are we reflective about our daily activities?

I was reading an interesting article yesterday and the journalist had interviewed an influential public figure. One of the questions the journalist posed to this person was, “if you had to reflect on your life and success, what stands out for you the most?” the public figure’s answer came as a bit of a shock and concern to me. The public figure paused for a moment and mentioned that though she had done lots of things and is a busy person; they have never taken a time to reflect. But, I love that she said in 2017 she wants to do more reflection and not just pass time doing lots of activities in a day without fully reflecting how each activity links up to her purpose.

Our generation is plagued with stress, depression, etc. I think it’s because we live in such a world of information overload, but we lack knowledge and wisdom in terms of how to live simple and relevant lives.

If I had, to be honest also, sometimes I have said and done things because I heard and saw others do that without thinking for myself. We have been raised to just do and most of us are living life and not thinking. We are not a reflective generation.

I think even as we begin 2017, it’s still a great time for us to just take a moment and reflect on why we do the things we do; even for the things, we have committed to do this year. Have we sat and thoroughly thought about how they add value to our purposes?