New Year! It’s Time To Clean House

We all know change doesn’t just happen because the calendar year rolled over. Change requires intention plus action. I think many of us get stuck trying to get through the second door, ‘action’. We mean well, we really do! We have great intention to change, then we just somehow…fall flat.

I’ve said this many times before (if you were paying attention): fear is one of the greatest barriers to change. Obvious, overt fears can be easy to spot. The real hard work is getting down to the deep reasons why we don’t apply to that job, or call up that old friend and apologize. The ancient fears, the relics of our lives from our forgotten past haunt our present in ways we may never have thought of. That is the gold—the true treasure—that you need to find. Start asking yourself why you are afraid to start that new gym routine, or why you are not being more mindful about how you speak to others, when you know you should be.

Is this the year you reach out for help to find your personal gold, the answers to all your why’s? Maybe this is the year you start therapy, or the year you start journaling. Maybe this is the year you take a leap and book that trip you have been meaning to go on. Maybe this is the year you stop saying ‘maybe’ and you start making things happen for yourself.

This past year has been glorious for me in so many ways, and terrifying in others. I made great changes in how I see others and how I interact with certain people. It’s been liberating, but it did not come without a struggle—an internal struggle to push past my deep rooted instinct to roll over and play dead. To ‘play dead’ to the hurt, the insults, the fake smiles, and the insincere apologies is second nature to me. Yes, I have reached my ‘F__It Forties’ years and I think I’m doing alright, but baby I’ve got a ways to go!

So, since I’m on this momentum I’m going to make 2024 my year! This being my 45th (minus a day) year I am going to push my own boundaries. Each time I catch myself ‘playing dead’ I’m going to remind myself to speak. It’s time I take out the trash—so to speak—and clean up my own act. After all, the world can only get better when we focus on cleaning our own backyard first!

Brooms up my dearest friends, it’s a new year and it’s time to walk through that ‘action’ door.

Who’s with me ?!