I usually have a difficult time determining whether a picture I’m looking at is showing either a sunrise or a sunset.  Without being able to tell whether the sun is closer to east or west, I tend to be a little biased towards sunset, since I’m more of a “night owl,” and enjoy more sunsets in person.

As I write this post, the time is approaching 3:30am, so tomorrow’s sunrise will need to be enjoyed by someone else.  When I was solely a small business owner, some of my most creative thinking took place in the wee hours of the morning.

I think many people associate the beginning of a new year with the “newness” of a sunrise.  I would tend to agree with that, but to me it’s thoughts we have just prior to the sunsets that have put us in the right frame of mind to capitalize on the new opportunities of the upcoming year.

Thoughts of victories – deserved as well as unintentional, and thoughts of defeats – hard to reckon, as well as the brief stumbles.

Friendships faded, and loves lost – as well as the timeless bonds that keep the people close to us that we care about most.

It’s the tactics that won the day, as well as those that fell short that we ponder as the sun sets.

The hard fought victories, and the near misses.  We think of them at sunset.

The hardships and challenging times we think about right before sunset, provide us with the much needed experience and desire to make each year just a little bit better than the last.

And it’s the hardships and victories that define us as who we are, as we enter each year with a strong resolve to make the upcoming year better than the last.

It’s the tears of joy and sorrow, as well as the sweat that takes us from one year to the next, with the experience and confidence required to know that this is indeed our time!

Here’s to the sunsets, and the new beginnings as we enter into 2019.

May you fully capitalize on all that’s behind you, in order to make the upcoming year your very best yet!