Happy New Year
Happy New Year
Meet Your Host, Alan Weiss
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker, and author and mean it.
His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. He has served on several boards of directors in various capacities.
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 30th year and sixth edition. His newest is Your Legacy is Now: Life is not about a search for meaning but the creation of meaning (Routledge, 2021). His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.
Get to know AlanShow Notes
New Year celebrations date back 4,000 years to ancient Babylon, where the festival of Akitu marked the new year around the spring equinox with religious rituals, debt-paying promises (early resolutions), and kingly renewals. Early civilizations linked it to agricultural cycles, like Egyptians with the Nile's flood. The Roman calendar, shifted to January 1st by Julius Caesar, became the basis for our Gregorian calendar, solidifying the date, though many cultures still celebrate at different times (Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah). The Babylonians made promises to their gods during a 12-day Akitu festival (their new year in March) to repay debts and return borrowed items for good fortune, a practice later adopted and adapted by the Romans and evolving into today's personal goal-setting tradition for self-improvement and a fresh start.
New Year's Eve celebrations became huge in Times Square starting in
1904, when The New York Times hosted a massive fireworks party for its new building, drawing 200,000 people; the iconic ball drop tradition began three years later in 1907, replacing fireworks and cementing the event as a beloved annual spectacle, as reported by The New York Times Company and Times Square.
Make a single resolution, not scores which will not be realized and lead to disappointment and self-doubt. Start it now, today, not some future date. Don’t regret the past or dread the future. Live for today, every day. You can’t change the past and the future will here before you know it.
And remember most, perhaps, that all of us deal with trauma and pain of varying types. Pain is inevitable in life, but suffering is voluntary.
So mourn your loss, endure the pain, but stop suffering and enjoy the wonderful life of existence. It beats the hell out of the alternative.
Happy New Year! (blow a horn)
Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.
Introduction to the show recorded by Connie Dieken
