Charting a New Course

By Dave Abrams, Publisher

We made it! A new year – good riddance 2020! I know the storm is not over yet, but with the promise of the new vaccines, I think we can see the dark clouds lifting on the horizon. I recognize that I am the eternal optimist, but I have a good feeling 2021 is going to end up as a much improved version of its older brother.

I have a number of New Year rituals. Of course there is the standard post-holiday diet, cleaning off all the paper that had accumulated on my desk all year, and taking some time to reflect on what we accomplished. Then it’s on to the new plans. As the saying goes “if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. Or for us mariners, that would be “any course will take you there”. No prudent mariner would leave port without a plan of where they were going and the route they were taking to get there. Each year is a new voyage for me – or three actually – one for my personal life, family life and business life. I set my goals for each of these three areas, and then chart my course on how to achieve those goals. I don’t always complete every voyage (especially when a global pandemic gets tossed in the way), but I always make progress, and get a chance to try again next year!

Whatever your new year rituals are, I wish all of you safe journeys and best wishes for a successful 2021!

You can reach Dave Abrams at dave@maritimepublishing.com