The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Mark Twain
Your Year of Paying It Forward. This is the year you discover how much of your best work carries the fingerprints of people who never knew they shaped you, and how good it feels to pass that gift along. A teacher you barely remember, a stranger who said one right thing once, an old friend who believed in you before you did. Their hands are all over the thing you are proudest of, and this year you get to be that hand for someone else. By spring, you mentor without meaning to, and watch it take. A project you nurtured quietly turns out to mean more than you realized. Someone tells you, beaming, that you changed their whole approach. Start the small generous thing now. The kindness you were given is yours to spend, and spending it is the joy.