Happy 2022!

What will you leave behind in 2021? What will you bring forward in 2022?

Happy New Year! 

Approximately five years ago I stopped making New Year resolutions. The burden and consistent failure to meet the resolution was a never ending cycle, which produced unavoidable discouragement. I replaced creating resolutions with creating themes and choosing a word for the New Year. This proved to be much more empowering, motivating and ultimately more realistic. I find it easier to focus on something that will motivate me towards my end goal, rather than the goal itself. 

As I reflect on the past year and what I envision for myself for the new year, the theme and word that come to mind are A Year of Excellence, with word being excellence. I'm not interested in perfection, it's unachievable. I am interested in giving myself, my best in specific areas of my life. I'm sharing those areas with you today because I believe there is power in writing something down and I also believe there is power in sharing your desires with others. 

On to "Excellence!" ex·cel·lence/ˈeks(ə)ləns/ noun 1.the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.
I want to be outstanding and extremely good to myself. In 2022 I will pursue excellence in the areas of my health, my marriage and my finances. As I pursue excellence, I have also thought about what are the things I want to leave behind in 2021 that could prevent me from achieving excellence in 2022? What do I want to manifest in 2022 that will place me on a path of excellence? Here is what I will leave behind, Control, Laziness, and Procrastination. What I will manifest in 2022, are 
Submission, Discipline, and Structure. 

I'm not going to spend to much time focusing on the things I will leave behind. I will provide some insight into those areas of focus that will align me with my best. The first being Submission, it has taken me 50 years to realize that there is so much freedom and peace in submitting to God and life and everything in between. Control is so deceptive and leads to frustration, despair, stress, and discouragement. When I relinquish power in a good and healthy way, accepting that I have no control over any person, place, thing or situation, that is where the power lies. I can control myself, my actions and reactions. This is true in marriage, family, friendship, work, and all the areas of life that matter. 

As for discipline, I plan to have the discipline in 2022 to tell myself "No." I plan to say no to myself and the things that will hinder my progress. Some of the no's include, no to sleeping in, no to working out tomorrow, and no to getting less sleep instead of a good night's rest. I want to say "Yes," to meal prepping and cooking more. Of course discipline and structure go hand in hand. I have started using my stop watch on my phone in an effort to allow myself one hour and one hour only on social media. I want to spend more of my life living, doing, being, rather than scrolling, clicking, and posting. I plan to establish a new normal of not allowing myself to open any social media platform without spending time in meditation first. As much as I love staying connected to people, I wouldn't otherwise be as connected to without social media, I believe there are more nourishing ways to feed my soul and spirit. 

Lastly, excellence requires submission, discipline, and structure as well. Structure leads to consistency, it includes checks and balances. It too will involve saying no to myself. Particularly, financial excellence requires creating and sticking to a budget, as saving and planning are both attributes of financial success. I can't control the unforeseen financial burdens that may come my way. I can however strive to place myself in the best situation possible to meet those demands. I'm grateful to have started some of the work in 2021 but there is so much room for growth and improvement. I'm excited to embark on this pursuit of excellence as I imagine it will be a lifetime commitment. 

That's me in 2022 in a nutshell. Whatever your goals, resolutions, themes, dreams and journey, I wish you success. May 2022, be everything you need for it and it for you. I also wish you good health, love, joy, peace and all the prosperity your year can hold. 

Happy 2022!

LaShay