We have officially stepped into a new decade! Happy New Year and welcome 2020! January seems to be a natural time to kinda reset or reevaluate ourselves, our lives, our intentions and goals. This is a good practice to do throughout the year or anytime your inner voice is prompting you to do so…not just once a year. However, this time of year, it’s a nice time to pause and do a “check in” with ourselves to make sure our behaviors line up with what our goals are. Having lived 49 awesome years so far, I’ve set numerous goals over that time. I’ve hit some of them, still striving for some of them, had successes, experienced failures, got back up and tried again. I am continually realigning myself through each season of life as to what intentional living is for me. Here are three things to consider as you move into this new year and decade.
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You Get To Choose
First and foremost, don’t let anyone else define what your life should be or become. You decide what brings you happiness and what kind of life you want to create. I cringe when I read articles on subjects like this and someone is telling us what a good life is supposed to look like or what we should be setting goals toward. There is no rule book or timeline of what you should be doing at a certain age. Sometimes, people have a checklist, very structured, like get married by a certain age, have kids by a certain age, have a certain professional acheivement by a certain age, and then there is the myth about acquiring a bunch of stuff by a certain age or whatever external things one thinks will bring happiness. I say to heck with all of that! The things I just mentioned make sense if that resonates with you and what you want for your life. However, I urge you to not fall into the trap of the “have to’s” of life just because that is what society insinuates you “should” do or you feel pressure from others of that is the timeline you need to hit. Each of us is unique and there isn’t a “one size fits all” plan to living a happy fulfilled life. My message is don’t get hung up on benchmarks of “by a certain age”. There is no thing you have to achieve or do by a certain age. What I would urge you to consider is to take time to evaluate and re-evaluate what kind of life you hope to create. In order to reach a goal, one has to make choices and have behaviors that line up with those goals. Most importantly, listen to your inner voice and stay true to you. Your happiness is what matters most.
Self Awareness Check
Self awareness is important and will make life much easier to navigate. It is my belief self awareness increases our overall happiness too. We are each created with different visions, goals, talents, personalities and characteristics. So let your uniqueness flow into your life. Self awareness will help you monitor your inner thoughts, feelings and emotions. It also increases your ability to understand your strengths, weaknesses, stressors, and monitor your own well being. Increasing your self awareness is a big part of self development. So as you move forward into this new year, focusing on or strengthening your self awareness will be helpful so that you can move in the direction that you are intending to. Self awareness is about focusing on the reality of your behavior which will guide you on what changes might be needed to your actions, thoughts and behaviors in a way that aligns with what you hope to become and desire for this year or the next decade.
The Triple Play-Hard Work, Patience, Persistance
Lastly, it has been my experience that plain old hard work, patience and persistence are all required to reach a goal or build the life you envision. No one is going to carry the water up the hill for you or do the heavy lifting. By putting in the hard work, you get to learn the most valuable lessons from the experience. Yes, it’s going to be hard at times and yes, there will be times things don’t work as fast as you’d hope but these are moments to build your character and prepare you for what lies ahead. It’s possible others won’t be supportive of your goals or the direction of your life but you can’t let those things stop you from charging forward. The most important opinion is the one you hold about yourself and you have to believe in yourself 100%. Just know that tough days, weeks, months or years might be part of your processs of reaching your goals. If you are true to yourself in the process, you will be better because of it. Never underestimate or ignore the power of hard work, patience and persistence.
Cheers to 2020 and to you creating the kind of year and decade that you most desire!
