“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.”

-T.S.Elliott

Welcome fellow travelers to a Brave New World.  According to the doomsday prophets, 2012 is destined to be a really rough ride, culminating in the demise of the world as we know it.

I’m am not inclined to be focused on the negative aspects of change .   I refuse to travel the path of the doomsday prophet.  I do have great hope that the world will change.   I know that change is frightening  and disruptive.  I understand and have experienced how painful any worthwhile change can be.

While I don’t have any answers or special power to drive world change I believe that I do have one ace up my sleeve that could make a significant difference.  What Ace is that you ask?   “Why that would be would be little old me!”

Think about it.  Where do we have the most control?  What can we as individuals  really take hold off to create significant change?  Is it external to us?  Likely no.  It is in all of us.  It resides in our authenticity.  Time and experience has shown me that the only real control that I have over anything is the control that I have over myself.

Me, that single living organism on a planet filled with other single living organisms.  As organisms we bump up against each other all the time.  We interact  and connect and we move past each other everyday.  Do we really pay attention to each other?  Do we demand authenticity or do we settle for veneer?

In the big picture, I suppose that I am just a spec in the universe.   We are all just tiny specs but the power of any single spec when multiplied and fused with other specs creates a force to be reckoned with.   This concept could easily be dismissed as “Pollyanna” thinking but tell that to the participants of Arab Spring.  While the concept of my ” spec” philosophy” may seem a bit elementary to some, it is my own way of being less overwhelmed and more of a participant in the change process.

Having control in the world means simply taking control over that which you can control.  You.  This is harder than you may think.  There are lots of distractions, things put in our path meant to divert our focus and send us off course.

These are the shiny things, the things that test our values, our ethics and our spiritual grounding.  These are the things that have little  to do with true authenticity and have more to do with what we have been programmed to aspire to.  The bigger house, the more prestigious job, the most money, the best car.  I’m not suggesting that these aspirational things are bad only that the aspirational list will change depending on life circumstance and opportunity but the authentic list will remain constant throughout a lifetime.

Authenticity is your true north star.  It is your best navigation point.  Strange how we forget that  in order to truly succeed we only need to chart a course from this pivotal point.

Every New Year  brings with it the challenge to revisit, revise and renew our goals .  How about getting back to basics?  Revisit the authentic you.  Revise the goals that aren’t about the authentic you and renew a commitment to the goals that are.

To quote Dr Suess…”and you will succeed 98 and 3/4 % guaranteed. Kid, you’ll move mountains!”

Consider yourself the most important spec of all.  Focus on being authentic in everything you do.  Demand authenticity from those around you.  If all of us “specs” truly embraced authenticity then the world as we know would experience a big bang like none other before.

Yes we can change the world.  One spec at a time!

Happy New Year

Let’s make a toast to a re “spec” full 2012