Dear Pogue,

The first letter I’ve written to you this year so, “Happy New Year”.What will we make of the days ahead and where will we be 12 months from now? My wish for you is that, looking back in 12 months time, you will feel you have banked 12 months well spent. Not a single one wasted.

At the beginning of this year I have returned to Richard Bach’s novel, Jonathon Livingstone Seagull, a perennial favourite of mine and, dare I say, a place of solace when I find myself without purpose. I have thought to, forgive me for this, write a series of letters to Jonathon rather than you for I suspect that Jonathon is a character we’d all like to be at some point. Indeed, the very dedication at the beginning of the book is:

To the real Jonathon Seagull, who lives within us all.

And so, the first question I feel I must address is, “Jonathon, who are you?” Because you are certainly not one of the flock, or, to put this within a context that my reader will appreciate, you’re not one of the crowd. Indeed, you prove exceptional even amongst the exceptional, Sullivan Gull declaring you to be “one in a million”.

What drives you?

And if Richard Bach is correct in stating that you live within each of us, how do I find you? That does assume that I want to become something that I may not currently be but have the potential to be.

To sum up your quest in a single sentence I would want to say: “You are a seeker of excellence, a fulfiller of potential”. You tell me that each of us can be far more than we currently are and our purpose is to first understand the wonders of a life lived to the full, and then to strive to possess that.

As I started this letter with a wish that you will not waste a single month of this year let me suggest you look for the “real Jonathon Seagull, who lives within us all”. It will take much exercise and effort but then, fulfilled potential has always required effort and focus. The reward, however, of being all you can possibly be, far exceeds the effort invested in the journey.

I’ll sign off now and leave you to ponder the thought.

Yours, wanting to be more of what I was created to be,

Wic