2012 - A New Year, A Fresh Start

I love the New Year. Its a time to start over...to try things differently, or not. Like a freshly clean chalkboard in school, the slate is clear and ready to be filled again.

This year I'm exceptionally ready for a fresh start. 2011 really took it out of me, emotionally and physically. Its never easy to lose a parent, especially so suddenly. But along with it came a ton of other emotions that popped to the surface like corks. Things that I thought I'd packed away for good. Everything has its consequence and for me its been weight gain, lack of interest in my usual activities and I've pulled away from many of my friends and my church.

While I know that time will allow me to work through everything, it always helps to have reminders. The few friends I've stayed in touch with have been wonderfully supportive. But I've also discovered a new blog, Marc and Angel Hack Life: Practical Tips for Productive Living, which has provided me with greatly needed food for thought. The advertisements are a bit distracting, but it seems that this blog is not supported by either Blogger or Wordpress, so I imagine the writers have to pay for their server space somehow. Regardless, once you get past all that, you will find words of classic wisdom - things that we all should remember but don't.

Take, for example, a post from earlier this December...30 Things to Stop Doing to Yourself. Coincidentally, this post was followed by the more positive themed "30 Things to Start Doing for Yourself", complete with a lead photo of a woman running. [If that's not a nudge toward "getting back to my life" I don't know what is.]

While the blog is full of tidbits of wisdom, this post really struck me, especially given the time of year. This is the time, as I mentioned, of new beginnings. We always seem to sabotage our personal goals...every time. With what? With outside distractions and with things that we do to ourselves to set ourselves up for failure. Guaranteed that most of the time we don't see these traps but they are there! This list (both of them, really) is deceptively full of common sense. Everything on it not only makes sense, but examples can easily (and surprisingly quickly) can be found in my life.

So - as we start on the new path that is 2012 - I intend to pay attention to these things. Correcting those will undoubtedly aid me in achieving my other goals for the year!