Happy Sunday Everyone:
This time last year I had finished the best year of my life by the numbers alone. I also realized I was about as distant from appreciating it, or enjoying it, as I could possibly be. You may recall, I wrote a letter to myself forgiving me for being a distant jackass, but also acknowledging some things needed to change around joy, being present, taking life a little less serious, and appreciating everything in my life. The letter was read throughout the year a lot, and it helped. The reason the letter was written in the first place is because I took the time to reflect on the previous year, which is what I’m doing now, reflecting on my 2021 and thinking about what felt good, what didn’t, changes I want to make, things I want to keep doing, things I want to stop doing, things I need to start doing.
Truth is I don’t feel like sharing everything going through my brain right now. What I do know is that two primary words keep coming at me, which are health, and consistency. Probably not the most exciting words on the planet, I wish “massive growth”, or “adventure”, or some other enticing verb was coming at me but those two words seem to be calling my name.
Health isn’t just about working out and eating right, although when I say “health”, me feeling “healthy” is a large part of it, but I’m talking about putting healthy in front of everything. I want healthy relationships with my family, friends, and co-workers, I want a healthy environment at home and at work, I want a healthy mindset in all that I do. I get clarity from opposites, so to me, the opposite of healthy is toxic. So everything I’m doing is either healthy for me or toxic for me, and I only want to be making healthy choices in all facets of my life.
The key for me to be making long term healthy decisions is to be consistent in all that I do. I just read a great quote that suggested the definition of wisdom to be “choosing to do now what you will be happy with later”. There are multiple meanings here, one is simply the concept of delayed gratification i.e. this cheeseburger is only tasting good on my lips but if I can remember how I’m going to feel 20 minutes from now, stop, the other bigger picture for me is to simply be thinking about big decisions we have to make with the end in mind. Will this decision that I’m making now, be something I’m happy with later?? Having that mindset, having that question on my mental repeat loop gives me a much greater chance of being consistent in making decisions that will have a positive lasting impact on my life.
I think it’s a good idea for us all to take stock of the last year of our life and to see what tweaks, or for some, major decisions, we need to be making to live the life we want to lead. I forget sometimes that it is in fact our choice. Having a word or two that you’ve thought through as a theme for the year might help you focus on what you want!
Happy New Year to all of you!