Resolved: To have the best year yet

We all know the routine, right?  On New Year's Eve we go out with friends, have a party, make drunken resolutions at the top of our lungs that we know (and everyone around us knows) aren't going to be kept longer than a week or two at most.  Then we move on into the year and continue with our lives as usual.

So this year I decided to make one resolution, and to set goals and expectations for myself that will help me achieve that resolution.  My resolution?  To make this the best year I've had yet in my life.  This won't be easy to do, mind you, because I've had some pretty darned good years!  But this will be the best one yet, because I'm the only person who can do what needs to be done to make this come true.

I have goals and expectations for myself that will move this resolution forward. 

• I'm going to move more.  I'm not happy with how I feel when I move right now, so this will have to change.  The only way to change it is by moving more.
• I'm going to continue eating more whole foods and having fewer processed foods in the house.  The husbeast and I have made great strides in this already, but there is always room for improvement.
• I am going to work on goals that have been put off in recent years.  This is going to be my year to wrap up loose ends.  We all have those chains dragging behind us in a very Marley-esque fashion, the things that we started and never finished or intended to do and never did.  Well, this is my year to address those things.  Some of them are private, and few people other than myself will ever know that I dealt with them.  Some are more public, and everyone will know when they happen.  But happen they will and they will happen this year.

I know that a lot of people choose "lose weight" as a resolution.  They have their reasons, and if they are comfortable with those reasons, well, then that is their choice.  It isn't my place to tell them that they are right or wrong.  What I will tell you is this:  choose goals that will make you happy.  Make your goals things that will result in you growing in some way, goals that will lead to a happier, more fulfilled self.

And when you are choosing those goals, don't listen to what the media or outside sources say you should do.  Take a few moments as the old year ends and the new one begins, sit quietly, and really LISTEN to the voice deep in your soul.  Not The Little Voice (TLV) that I've talked about before, not the voice that tells you everything that is wrong with you, but rather your Heart Voice.  Let it speak to you and tell you what will truly fill a place in your heart, mind, and soul, and then take the time to plan out how to achieve that goal.  Even if it seems unattainable, or impossible, let yourself believe in it.  We can achieve amazing things when we let ourselves believe.

If you believe, and strive, and work on your goal moment by moment then by this time next year I hope that you join me in saying, "2013 was the BEST year yet!  Now to make 2014 even BETTER!"

Happy New Year, everyone!  Now go and believe!!!!

2013: Goals and Expectations

It is the beginning of a new Gregorian calendar year, and it is traditional to name your resolutions at this time of year.  Of course, it is also traditional to break those resolutions before the month is out.  So I'm not going to make any resolutions this year.  I am, however, putting some goals and expectations for myself out there in the belief that this will give me a measure of self-accountability.

So, in 2013 I have the following goals and expectations:

• I will move more.  I am not happy with how I feel when I move right now and the only way to fix that is to start moving more.  I have friends who get together to exercise and someday wouldn't mind being able to join them, but I think they're full up with people at the moment, so I will start on my own and should an opportunity arise to join them, I will be more able to do so than I am right now.  I am not going to be more specific than this regarding how much I move, because if I am and I miss that EXACT goal one week / day / whatever, then I will give it all up.  So for now, movement itself is the goal.
• Our meals will continue to become healthier.  We have made great strides in this, and I am going to move further down that path.  Whole foods, fewer quickly digested carbohydrates, more complex carbs, and a focus on making our meat portions smaller while getting additional proteins from other sources.
• I will focus more on my business.  I have been splitting my focus and letting myself get distracted but if I truly want to be successful then I have to turn my gaze and energies fully on what it takes to achieve that success.  I would like to pay myself my first official paycheck before the end of the year.  It doesn't have to be much, but I want to reach that level of achievement.
• In 2012 I started The Great Reorganization so that we could purge the house of all of the extra "stuff" that was cluttering our lives, and so that we could make room for children in our lives.  We have let that sit on the back burner for too long.  2013 will be the year of Moving Forward.  We will move forward with the rest of the purge, and we will move forward with adoption plans.  I have allowed myself to be too comfortable with where we are, rather than pushing toward where we want to be, and that will end.  It is time to continue into the next part of our lives.

These are my goals.  I am scared of some of them, and excited about some of them.  Life will change as a result of all of them, but change is what keeps us growing and learning.  And I'm ready for some changes.