What person hasn’t, at some point at their life, looked back at a mistake they’ve made, and thought to themselves, “I wish I could just start again.”

We haven’t yet found a time machine, that would allow us to go back in time, like in the movie “Back to the Future,” and kiss that girl, punch that guy, make that investment, or not marry that woman – but we do have the chance to make a new start, right where we are, and create a new life as a result of it.

If you think of it, each decision we make in life both limits our choices and creates possibilities that can vastly expand those possibilities in the future. Taking a particular road, for example, means that we didn’t take all the other roads we could have taken – it limits our choices. At the same time, that road expands our possibilities in the future – there are all of a sudden more roads that can be taken.

In other words, although a particular choice moves us toward one course of action, earmarking a particular choice helps our minds to focus on the possibilities surrounding that choice. If we choose to go into the consulting business, for example, all of a sudden our mind explores the myriad of opportunities that we could exploit down those lines. If we choose to be a banker, our mind seizes on the possibilities we can find in banking; if we choose to be a doctor, a whole different view of the world opens up.

As we move further down our chosen path, we find new opportunities, and gain new knowledge, which opens up opportunities we’ve never even considered – in fact we find opportunities that we didn’t even know existed.

This is all a direct result of making a choice, setting out along a path, and choosing a new life as a result.

Each new year is a blank page on which we can write our future. Each new start is a chance to create a new path, take a new trip, follow a new option, achieve a new destination.

I do a lot of driving during the year, but it’s mostly the same roads, time and again. But at least once during the year, I wind up driving on new roads, finding new territory, seeing new things.

Most of the time, my nightly dreams are somewhat pedestrian, but on those weeks where I take new paths, follow new roads, my dreams suddenly wake up and are energized by the new information coming my way. I find myself flying across new countrysides, following new paths, learning new things, and thinking new thoughts – all spurred by the new paths that I’ve taken that day. For a few days, my mind lights up with new possibilities – all because of a new path that I’ve taken, a road that I’ve never been on before.

I get the same effect with new books, new ideas, and new goals – all of a sudden, my thinking changes, my life is altered, and my decisions are made differently – because I have started a new path, and created a new life.

The New Year is a chance for us to take that challenge – it’s an opportunity to create a new life, by making a new start, free of the baggage and drudgery that held us back before. By choosing our new path, and making a new start, we choose a new life, determining where we will go, when we will get there, and how we will respond to the challenges that greet us on our way.

Make a new start today, and energize your new life.