Hope, Change and New Beginnings

Today our calendar shifted another year forward.  This causes one to  reflect on the last 365 days and look back at opportunities missed and goals unfinished.  A new year can provide a fresh start and new opportunities.  However, like any day on this journey, it is a chance to make a change, start a new challenge or goal.  It does not have to be the first day of a new year, new month or new week to begin work toward a better you.  If you want to make a change, do it now!

This journey has taught me that when a change is needed I can't put it off.  Too many times in the past I said to myself that I will start in a few days, next week or maybe even next month. Many times those milestones came and went without any action.  There were a few occasions that I would start with all good intentions and last a few days. weeks, etc and then hit a bump.  Here would enter the voices that get me in trouble.  They say well we messed up today or this week so we might as well wait till next week to start again.  For me this has been toxic.  I have learned that a bump can quickly turn into a 4 month detour if allowed more focus than necessary.  Therefore, I have tried to create a better mindset for when I veer slightly off course.

Accepting that slip ups will happen and sometimes they are much, much longer than I want to admit has been hard throughout this journey.  In the beginning, I beat myself up over them but found that of little use and left me less motivated to move forward.  I slowly started to learn to let them happen and pick right back up, even if sometimes it had been months of wandering.

Life is going to happen and to make a solid change you really have to be realistic in your expectations.  Making a change will be hard and life is not going to instantly become easier to allow you adjustment time to this new goal, way of eating, yoga practice, sleep pattern or whatever it is. There will be times you won't do it all right, but being mindful of the direction you want to head will always get you through.

Remember to create reminders of you intentions, tell others for both support and accountability and

don't be too hard on yourself or others.  We are all trying to figure out the best way to live our own lives and we could use some more love along the way.

Every day is a blank tapestry.  There will be some where we paint a beautiful masterpiece and at the end of the day we have such satisfaction with all that was done. However, other days will leave

us a mess and appear more like a splatter painting.  Each one will hold amazing beauty of their very own and contribute in such amazing ways toward the much larger work.

I wish you luck in all your endeavors and a happy new year.  Might each day hold the same opportunity to start fresh, refocus and renew that you feel on this first day of each year.