My New Year's Resolution? To Be A Good Man -- At Home And At Work

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Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you’re well rested, relaxed and rarin’ to go in 2013!

The day after New Year’s is traditionally a chance to start anew.  It’s the first “real” day of the year, when everyone is back at work, your to-do list is newly inked and your resolutions have been made.  This year I decided not to make a big list of things to accomplish.  Instead, I decided to focus my efforts on one thing: to be “good.”

You might ask yourself, “What does that have to do with a column generally dedicated to digital media and marketing”?  Stay with me; I’ll get there in just a moment.

Year in and year out we come up with resolutions like getting more organized, eating better, exercising more, balancing work with family better, and a hundred other efforts that are each noble and well-intended.  We do a pretty good job of these things for three to five months, but eventually the challenges of daily life build up and some of our old bad habits re-emerge.  It doesn’t mean we lose the path we laid out at the beginning of the year entirely, it just means we may not be as focused as we were at the beginning, and our goals may have slid a little bit. 

This always happens to me, and I’m sure it happens to you as well.  So instead of trying to plot a graph of specific intent that I’m likely to veer away from, I discovered a holistic resolution that I think can encompass everything I want to be -- while still providing me with the flexibility to avoid bashing myself for not living up to a specific, albeit measurable, goal.  The resolution to just simply “be a good man” in 2013 encompasses everything I want to be. 

2012 was an interesting year.  There were highs and lows, and what happened in Connecticut was probably the lowest of the lows.  Sometimes it takes a tragedy for people to see the things that are really important to them.  For me, being a good man for my kids is the most important thing in my life.  I want my sons to see the kind of man they can aspire to be, in honor of those parents who lost their children on that senseless day. 

I want to be a good man to honor the memories of children who will never get to grow up and be honorable men and women in their own right.   I want to be a good man to honor those people in the military who lost their lives defending the freedom of others.  I want to be a good man so I can honor my family and leave a lasting impression on the world around me.

What does it mean to be a good man?  It means to work hard and enjoy life.  It means to make decisions based on integrity.  It means to be honest and open with your opinions as well as your feelings, and make sure the people around you are confident and open in return.  I want to help those around me to reach their full potential while not sacrificing the things that I want. I want to take care of myself, both mind and body, and want that sense of personal pride and confidence to come through in my work.

When you read a column like this at the very start of the new year, I want you to take something away from it that you find valuable.

Simply put, I want to be a good man.  It doesn’t mean I have to be perfect (no one ever is), but that I have to try and be good at life and the challenges that come with it.

It may sound like a lot, but it’s not.  It’s actually quite simple.  It just means that you treat every hour with integrity, respect and honesty -- and that you forgive yourself when you don’t, because the strongest mark of being a good man is the ability to forgive other’s faults, as well as your own.

So here’s to 2013, in all your business and personal goals.  May you also be “good” --and may you have a wonderful year ahead.  And a special thanks to MediaPost for always allowing me to share my thoughts with you.

Cheers!

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4 comments on "My New Year's Resolution? To Be A Good Man -- At Home And At Work".

1. Kevin J. Alexander from Sky Angel U.S., LLC
   

   commented on: January 2, 2013 at 1:04 p.m.
   Cory, Well done - thanks. Happy New Year!
2. Thomas Siebert from DIGITARIA
   

   commented on: January 2, 2013 at 1:35 p.m.
   Good piece. America needs more Good Men and fewer Nice Guys. That's been my focus for the last six months or so, so far I like the way it's worked out.
3. Sheldon Senzon from JMS Media, Inc.
   

   commented on: January 2, 2013 at 3:20 p.m.
   What a wonderfully refreshing and much needed piece, great job. We've all seen and experienced so much in the last year, this enables us to better place them in proper perspective. I'll heed your advice and hope many more do as well. We don't need another Connecticut to remind us there's so much more important in life than Facebook "Likes", Twitter "Tweets" and "Check-ins" from restaurants.
4. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: January 2, 2013 at 3:29 p.m.
   You have described the essence of morality and humanity.

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