Cue the canned applause. Thank you, thank you. Even louder fake applause. No, really… you’re embarrassing me… Fake applause slowly dies into the background.

My thoughts and reflections on the end of 2009 are those of gratitude and excitement. Gratitude first. I am exceedingly thankful to all the people whom I’ve had a chance to work with in the past year – not just for the business, but for pushing me with each project to be a little bit better.

When it comes to personal improvement, I always think back to a moment on one of my favorite albums – In Session with Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan. In between songs, King tells Stevie that no matter how good he gets, he can’t stop working to get better. “You’re gonna be good… than what you are. … You’re already pretty good.” That wasn’t a slap at Vaughan, it was an older and wiser guitar player trying to motivate and stoke the fires of a young man who was already better than most of the players on the planet. But it’s true for all walks of life and professions – you can be better than what you are, it’s a matter of working to improve.

The excitement comes from all the possibilities that are waiting in 2010. I am personally looking forward to putting more energy into creative endeavors and pushing my skills to levels I probably don’t even know exist yet. In fact, I wish that to be part of everyone’s resolution for the coming year – to push themselves in new directions and beyond their current limits.

Be more, do more, and love more. That’s what it’s all about and there will be more on all those topics coming in the early parts of January 2010. Stay tuned.