New Year’s Eve is my wife’s birthday, which always makes the day extra special around the Fite house. But I didn’t spend last New Year’s Eve celebrating with her or with family or with friends.
I spent it in a hospital, sitting next to my dad, watching the Alabama game and giving him the play-by-play as his favorite team beat Michigan State and headed to the national championship.
After the game, I stood at the window and watched the fireworks from the eighth floor of Florida Hospital. After a while, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was fifteen minutes until midnight.
I’ve never really been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. They seem to last for a little while. Eventually, most of us fall back into our old habits and ways of doing things and living life.
Still, I wanted to be a better husband, father, and son. But I wasn’t sure what that would even look like. I knew I’d eventually fail at all three, probably before the weekend was even over.
So I sat down, turned the TV off, and listened to the beeps and whirs of hospital equipment while fireworks popped in the distance behind me. I watched the clock strike midnight. I felt broken.
And that’s when I realized that there was a resolution I could make, one within my control.
We’re all broken in one way or another. Some of us just hold the pieces together better.
But a funny thing happens when you let go: you find yourself with a set of hands free from the past and able to reach for and hold onto something new, something completely different and exciting.
The sad part about New Year’s resolutions is that only eight percent of us will keep them. What’s sadder is that the other ninety-two are still holding onto the very things that are holding them back.
I made a decision that night, one that I’ll be reaffirming again tonight, and one that I hope you’ll consider making with me as well. And that’s to make peace with your broken pieces.
Let go of the shards of a broken past that you’re still holding onto. Make peace with the pain by forgiving someone that doesn’t deserve your forgiveness. And be honest about who you really are.
Because if you know your weaknesses, you can be strong. If you know your flaws, you can be beautiful. If you learn from your mistakes, you can be wise. And when you realize that you’re the one holding yourself back from being a better version of yourself, you can simply just let go.
If 2016 left you broken, good. Because until you are broken, you don’t know what you’re made of.