Greetings PRO New England!

I hope everyone enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving and looks forward to continuing the holiday season over the coming days, culminating in New Years!  This time of year is always packed with to-do’s and errands, events and celebrations, and many of them feel daunting to jam into an already busy life with family, friends, and community.  As I reflect on my first year as President, I am so immensely grateful for the hard work and dedication so many people contribute to this thriving organization.  I am humbled daily by the calls, emails, inquiries, meetings, and events that comprise the beating heart of PRONE and bring us back together on a regular basis, all in service of each other and our communities.  In a few of my past notes in this forum, I have written about celebrating perspective, gratitude, putting yourself out there, the power of new relationships, and several other topics.  As I sit here today in my kitchen writing this note, our Menorah still on the shelf, candles long melted as Hanukkah ended a couple days ago, I can see our fully ornamented Christmas tree glowing festively in the background.  

I love this image, as it reflects my family and the spectrum of traditions and joy we celebrate fluidly, naturally, and without need of explanation to each other, even though it’s a little abnormal.  It is a true reflection of what my kids know to be “life,” plain and simple.  It feels like an invitation to slow down for a minute and think about how I got here.  The short answer is I said “yes” to a ton of things.  I said yes to relationships, yes to trying new things, yes to being open minded, yes to travel, yes to really hard work, yes to volunteering… yes to so many opportunities in my life.  It is estimated that the average human makes ~35,000 decisions a day, some more consequential than others, but that means as I sit here, I have likely made somewhere north of 600,000,000 decisions in my life.  You can do the math, although we are all generally in the same boat, more or less.

So on the eve of this year turning to the next, I invite us all to focus on the opportunities we create and especially those that fall from the sky.  The universe has a tendency to provide, when you consistently focus on asking.  But when it does, we need to say “yes.”  All of you reading this message are driven, accomplished, and successful in a multitude of things in your lives.  Whether we shy away from it or routinely boast about them, we are all great at many things.  However, it’s easy for us to focus on the things we wish we were better at… loving, forgiving, believing, trusting, listening, accepting, celebrating, sleeping, etc… So right now, I want you to think about the opportunity to focus on something you wish you were better at and make the decision in the coming year to figure out how to get there.  This doesn’t mean become someone you’re not, quite the opposite, create the opportunities for growth and learning by trying new things, simply to make the person you are feel better to you!  Make opportunities happen, life is not a spectator sport, and it favors hard work, rigor, and intention.  

I haven’t decided yet what my focus will be this coming year, but I am excited to make time over the next couple weeks to ponder this question and start the year with fresh eyes and a full heart.  I wish you all the very best this holiday season and may you find the fuel to keep your inner fire burning brightly, or the spark to rekindle the flame within, for a new year ripe with amazing opportunities.  I’m looking forward to saying YES!

Humbly,

Eric