Thank Goodness It's Monday #446

A LUCKY RED ENVELOPE FOR YOU

(AND AT LEAST ONE IDEA

MORE VALUABLE THAN $$$)



Sculpture of Chinese zodiac Horse 
in a park in Zhejiang Province, China

Welcome to the Year of the Horse.

 

You may know that, based on an ancient system of astronomy and astrology, last Friday -- give or take a few hours depending where in the world you were/are -- the so-called Chinese New Year began.

 

So called? This New Year observance is determined by a lunar calendar. In China, the festivities are known as Spring Festival (春節) or Lunar New Year (農曆新年). From late January to mid-February, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and other countries also celebrate Lunar New Year.

 

Or maybe you know because you clicked through on the seasonal Google Doodle.

No matter how you come by the information, the Lunar Year ahead (year 4712) is designated the Year of the Horse -- particularly the Wooden Horse, incorporating a traditional Lunar New Year designated “element” into the mix.

You may also recognize some of the traditions that will be observed over the stretch of 15 days of ceremony and celebration to attract and welcome good luck and happiness.

Not surprisingly, many are customs that would fit in any cultural context at the beginning of a new year.

• People dress in finery to represent contentment and wealth.
• Homes are scrubbed clean.
• Rooms are decorated for the holiday.

Other traditions are unique.

• The room decorations are paper lanterns and flower blossoms.
• Walls are adorned with the Chinese characters for “Happy New Year” – Gung hay fa choy in Cantonese.
• Dragon-dance parades snake along streets with clashing cymbals and firecrackers exploding to ward off evil spirits.

And --

• Children and single, unemployed adults look forward to receiving red envelopes stuffed with cash from elders.

As the “elder” co-creator with my friend Eric Taylor of the Best Year Ever Program! some years (both lunar and solar) ago, I sort of feel obliged to commemorate any “New Year” observance and tie it to our message that –

Any time is the right time

to begin Your Best Year Ever!

So, although you may not be a child or an unemployed single, here’s –

A Red Envelope for you.

Sorry, no actual cash.

(Awwww …)

 But in the spirit of all these TGIM messages, I believe that “sharing an idea” is a time-proven strategy that’s –

More valuable than money. 

Think of it this way: If I have a dollar and you have a dollar, and we give our dollar to one another, we each still have only a dollar.

But, and it’s a Big BUT: If I give you an idea, and you give me an idea, then we each have two ideas that we can contemplate, be inspired by, work on with our individual talents and craft into something even greater than the original inspiration.

So, having “horsed around” with that concept some, let’s get back to this idea of astrology and universal truths.

According to the astrological aspects of the holiday, babies born in a Year of Horse are expected to have the following traits:

Strengths

People born in a Year of the Horse have ingenious communicating techniques and in their community they always want to be in the limelight. They are clever, kind to others, and like to join in a venture career. Although they sometimes talk too much, they are cheerful, perceptive, talented, earthy but stubborn. They like entertainment and large crowds. They are popular among friends, active at work and refuse to be reconciled to failure, although their endeavor cannot last indefinitely.

Weaknesses

They cannot bear too much constraint. However their interest may be only superficial and lacking real substance. They are usually impatient and hot blooded about everything other than their daily work. They are independent and rarely listen to advice. Failure may result in pessimism. They usually have strong endurance but with bad temper. Flamboyant by nature, they are wasteful since they are not good with matters of finance due to a lack of budgetary efficiency. Some of those who are born in the horse like to move in glamorous circles while pursuing high profile careers.  They tend to interfere in many things and frequently fail to finish projects of their own.

Were you born in a Year of the Horse? You probably don’t know. But you also probably felt that some of the characteristics – especially the positive ones – fit you. 

Now for me, almost any astrological stuff is –

Beyond understanding. Yet, as I’ve confessed before, I do look at my horoscope in the newspaper. I’ve got the daily Libra prognostication popping up on my computer home page.

And I read them with the fascinated knowledge that there is guidance to be gleaned in the cryptic messages (although that it is celestial and unwavering universal is highly suspect to me).

Year of the Horse TGIM Takeaway: I figure, at the least, horoscopes are well-intended advice. I’m certainly open to that. So that leads me, at the auspicious new beginning of the Year of the Horse, to this –

TGIM Takeaway: “We are wiser than we know.” Ralph Waldo Emerson said that some solar years ago in 1841.

How does that relate to this New Year 4712? We all would want the positive characteristics of those born in a Year of the Horse as well as the Water Snake (last year’s creature designation) or the Dog (my Chinese astrology birth year; I looked it up) and the other nine Chinese astrological animal signs.

And who wouldn’t want to embody the best parts of Libra, Scorpio, etc., etc.

 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: If we’re wise enough to know what characteristics are desirable, then we should be wise enough to set our own course in raising our skills in those areas in order that we might become all that we might become.

 

Our fate is not in the stars. The future is in our own hands. Self-improvement is the precursor to all improvement. So --

 

Quit horsin’ around.

Gung hay fa choy!  Get started on Your Best Year Ever! NOW.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. “The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action, in man.” British author D. H. Lawrence (1885 -1930) made that observation in 1931 (which was a lunar calendar Year of the Sheep.)