Lessons from 2017

I'm not entirely sure when I started using planners. It's been at least since high school, but it's possible I had one before then and just don't remember. For the last 4 years, I have used a Passion Planner, and they are hands down my favorite. I love the monthly and weekly layouts that help you create focal points for the days ahead, and provide you with inspirational quotes to motivate you. I love the Passion Roadmap at the start of every planner that encourages you to put your big dreams to paper and then create a plan for realizing them. But my favorite part of the planner has to be the monthly, mid-year and end-of-year reflections. 

I thought I would share a bit of my 2017 end of year reflection with you. 

 

What were your three biggest lessons you learned this past year? What is one way to incorporate these lessons into your life?

1. Everything will happen in its own time. Be patient. Be mindful. Don't rush good talent.

2. Allowing yourself to be seen is tantamount to living an authentic life. Show up as yourself. Always. All ways. 

3. Words have power. Words become thoughts. Thoughts become actions. And all of these make your life. Be careful with how you talk to yourself and what you put out into the universe. 

 

Name three things you can improve on next year. What are concrete actions you can take to work toward these improvements?

1. Embrace abundance. The life you want is yours. Continue working for it. Open your arms, your mind, your heart, your spirit to that life. Claim it.

2. Patience. Everything will happen in its own time. Just keep showing up.

3. Be yourself. Show up as you are, not as you think people would like you to be.  

What lessons are you bringing with you into the new year? What are you working to improve?

Writing for Me

For weeks I have been seeing signs (almost daily) telling me that I should do what I am afraid to do, that I should speak the stories that are getting caught in my throat, and write the ones that are making my hands shake as I clutch the pen or stroke the keys.

I had been ignoring these messages, but then I began to wake up with words on the tip of my tongue, and my heart felt as though it was near bursting for all the things I was not saying.

It seemed there were some secrets, some old hurts, some healing, some earned wisdom that were determined to make their way into the world, one way or another whether I allowed them passage or not. I realized then that we are not in always control of what we share, but we can have a hand in how. I am working on the how. As the words come to me I write them down. I don't worry about editing them, I just let them flow.

I go back, read them, feel my heart flutter with that familiar fear that says "you should not be writing this," and then I put them away before I am overcome by the urge to alter them, censor them, soften their edges. 

I hope to release these stories out into the world one day, but for now, the reader I am writing for is me. And not just present me, but also for adolescent me, young adult me. Though, I worry about how she would receive what I'm writing. What would she think of the way I see the life we lived? How would she feel about these lessons I wish I could share with her? Would she be proud of what we have become?

Give Dreams A Chance

A Couple years ago, I heard this amazing commencement speech that Jim Carrey gave at Maharishi University of Management, and I listen to it every so often when I'm having one of those moments where I'm second guessing my decision to pursue the life of my dreams. In my favorite part of the speech, Carrey talks about his father. He talks about how his dad held down a job that he didn't have a passion for, for most of his life, and then one day he was let go. Carrey said the lesson he took from that was, "you can fail at something you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on something you love."

We come up with so many reasons why we can't even try to go after our dreams. We tell ourselves it's not the right time, we tell ourselves it's too risky. We come up with reasons why we will fail where others have succeeded. We stack all of these things up in front of ourselves as proof that our dreams are not worth the gamble, but they are.

We can not know what we are truly capable of if we don't try. We can not know what could have come of our dreams if we don't live them. We can not have the life we've always wanted doing the same things we've always done.

This is not to say it won't be hard -- because it will. This is not to say it won't take time -- because it may take a while. But when you come out on the other side and your life reflects your dreams and passions -- when you look around at the culmination of all of your hard work and perseverance, won't that be worth it?

You will never know what your life could have been if you don't take that first step and give your dreams a chance.

What Dreams May Come

This year did not turn out the way I expected. Who I was at the beginning of this year is not who I am now. 

I feel like I have been altered on a soul deep level. 

There are few similarities between the life I projected out into the future this time last year, and the one I am currently living. 

A lot of this has to do with my love of research and planning. I like to see the road out ahead of me and anticipate what's coming. When I commit to something I read up on the subject at length and create whole files dedicated to ensuring that I am prepared for all potential outcomes, but that's just not realistic. That's not how life works. 

There is no way for me to foresee everything that lies ahead. It is not possible for me to plan for all of life's circumstances, and these are truths that I have been working through and am still in the process of making my peace with. Doing this has required that I stop micromanaging myself.

Everything in life does not need to come attached to a deadline. 

There have been (and I am sure will be) many times when I get so caught up in the end game that I forget to enjoy the process of creation. Milestones are wonderful and should be celebrated, but the milestones are the highlight reel. All that stuff in between: the struggle, the hard work, the tears, the determination, the good days, the bad days, is what make the wins so sweet, because you know all you did to get there. 

My 2015 was a very goal-driven year, and there is nothing wrong with that. It taught be a great deal. But I want to try something different in the year to come. 

2016 will be a journey-driven year. 

A year to fall in love with creating again, and a year to give my head a break, so that I can listen with my heart for a little while. 

5 Things I Learned About Happiness

In March I decided to embark on 100 Days of Happiness and on June 28, 2015, I completed that journey. Back in March when I was standing on the precipice of these 100 days they felt daunting, and there were days during my journey when I felt like I had nothing to contribute for the day, but I always found at least one moment. Usually, in my search for one I found many. And now, on the other side of my 100 days of documented happiness, I have learned a lot about what it means to be happy.

Happy Lessons

Lesson 1: Just because sorrow is heavier than happiness, doesn't mean you have to let it weigh you down. You can choose to sink, or you can choose to allow your happy moments to lift you.

Lesson 2: Happiness and gratitude are closely linked. If you can hone in one what you have to be grateful for, happiness won't be far behind.

Lesson 3: There is not a person in this world who can not find a reason to be happy each and every day. It's all a matter of perspective.

Lesson 4: Happiness comes in all sizes and many forms. Epic happiness is amazing, but does not diminish the tiny happinesses that occur on a daily basis and compound to build joy.

Lesson 5: Where there is love, there is happiness. On days when all else fails, look to what (or more often times who) you love.

Even though I am no longer methodically keeping tracking of my happy moments on a daily basis. I am now more aware of them, and more aware of the choices I make about what I focus on in my life. So often the difference between being happy and not is merely a shift in focus.

Choose Happiness :)