I believe what is on the inside manifests on the outside. You can’t look 20 forever and do you really want to? Age is a gift. It brings with it knowledge, lessons learned, experience, a whole new different way of thinking, and appreciation.
Aging gracefully includes so many things. Starting with what you feed your body. Eating living foods that nourish and give you energy. Provide your body with necessary supplements that keep your mind alert and your body functioning. I take a multivitamin, coral calcium, fish oil, and iron every day.
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Anything worthwhile is worth doing with passion. Christmas is only a couple of days away and one week later the new year opens. I love New Year’s! It is probably my favorite day of the year. I always feel like, to a certain extent, everybody has the opportunity to start with a new slate. Dreams, wishes, and goals come flooding back making me think this is my year to accomplish something great.
It also means looking back on a whole year gone by and asking myself, “What did I accomplish this past year?” and “What do I appreciate that came into my life this past year?” Each year I reflect on the amazing opportunities that have come, the new people who have enriched my life, accomplishments and successes. It also means reflecting on where I fell short.
Make Goals for 2010
Make goals that mean something to you. If it helps, write down each goal and detail why it is important to you. Try writing down the pros and cons. The pros being the great things you receive from reaching the goal and the cons if you let it go another year. Goals really are as unique as you are. We each have our own reasons for attaining a specific goal, so own it and create the person that is inside you just waiting to break out.
Passion
Love it! Love it in your heart and soul, and feel it in your bones. It will make the journey more amazing. When the struggles come, you will see them more as a challenge. We live in an age of information. Anything that you want to know is out there and all this information is FREE. On my sidebar you will find some of my favorite websites. What the internet does not provide is YOU. Ultimately, it will take the action on your part to traverse the hills and valleys, the ups and downs, the good and the bad.
Give Back
There is an African proverb that states, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Isn’t this so true? This relates to adults as well. You’ll be amazed at the people who are out there to encourage you and if they can help, they will. If you find that the people around you aren’t encouraging and even go to lengths to discourage you, be it by what they say, or what they do, or how they treat you and your dreams, replace those voices and that energy with people who do encourage you. Winners love winners, losers try to keep others at their level. Don’t let other people determine who you are and your value.
With access to people who believe in you, encourage you, and help you to reach your goals, remember to give back. It means helping others in their journey, believing in them and their dreams. I believe you get what you give. Life really does work in cycles. There are moments when we all need a little help along the way, you will find yourself in moments where you can help because you can.
And, who knows, maybe those who gave you the most grief end up becoming your biggest fans. Be an inspiration, be a catalyst.
In Conclusion
Because this is real for me and is written to share my hopes for you, I would like to wrap this up by letting you know what is important to me for the next year. I’m not coming up with something like 25 goals I would like to get done in one year, but to really focus on the ones that mean the most to me. Here is a list of what I love and would like to achieve and see become excellent. In no particular order:
- Health & Fitness. Since my car accident three years ago, my weight has gradually been increasing. I walk pretty much everywhere I need to go, but I am now older and my body and metabolism doesn’t let me get away with what it used to. I was involved in whatever sport was available when I was in school; working in an office, behind a desk all day doesn’t quite get the heart rate up.
My goal is to be 125 pounds. I’ve rejoined a gym. I have also joined SparkPeople that gives me a lot of information and a community of like-minded people.
- This Blog. This blog actually happened on accident. I created and started this blog this year, 2009. Working as a professional assistant for 20 years, I wanted to put out information to and for the administrative professional. To elevate the profession to a level of respect that so many of my fellow administrative professionals bring to their work each day. This profession has some of the most talented, creative, intelligent, and amazing people I know.
My goal for this blog is to write content that informs and inspires. I would like this website to be a great place for professionals to come to for ideas, encouragement, vent frustrations, share their achievements, and feel welcome to contribute their ideas.
- My career. I love what I do and I hope that is reflected in how and what I write on this blog.
My goal is to continue to advance and excel; expand my network of really great professionals; continue learning, whether taking classes, the vast resource that is the internet reading information provided by other really great bloggers, books, and just learning by doing.
Finally, let me just say that everyone who comes by my little blog home, you inspire me. I look forward to your comments, participation, and suggestions. I wish you great success in the year 2010!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Layne
Or should I say coexisting peacefully? Regardless, we are bombarded each day with decisions, urgencies, surprises, stresses, and demands. We would like to believe that we are in control, but we just aren’t.
We can give our life direction by the decisions we make, good or bad, but we cannot account for the uncertainties and external factors of others or random external events. So there you have it, the process of navigating through life’s challenges and surprises with a sense of purpose and peace.
Processing and managing life’s inconveniences and irritations do not have to be all-consuming. There are some things that you can do to keep perspective and move forward with grace.
- Life, like nature, has cycles. There is a time for everything. A time for love, a time for heartache. A time for health, a time for illness. A time for wealth, a time for poverty. A time for success, a time for failure. Understanding this helps you to remember that, just around the corner, things will turn in your favor. There will always be something that needs tending too.
- Meditate. Meditation calms the mind, releases stress, and brings you back to center. It is also in quieting the mind, you are able to reduce the noise, and bring forth clarification and focus. Allow the obvious to bubble to the surface and become inspired.
- Create fences. When dealing with work issues, leave them at work. If there is a lot of drama going on at home, with family, or friends, don’t bring them to work. The point is don’t let one aspect of your life filter into and infect another aspect of your life.
- Act normal. Going through your day as if everything is okay, is okay. There is a difference between having a problem in your life and making a problem of your life.
- Write it out. Give yourself five minutes or a half hour to get it all out, take some sort of action toward resolution with a determined deadline, and let it go. Don’t marinate in it.
- Go for a walk. Fresh air, get the blood moving, free up your thought process, release negative energies, and come back feeling renewed and refreshed.
- Be grateful and appreciate. The likelihood of everything at one time being perfect is probably not even possible. So, with that said, the likelihood of everything at one time being wrong is remote. Appreciation for the good things in our life is a gift. You may not have your health, but you have your sense of humor. You may not have your big house anymore, but you still get to wake up each day with your kids.
There are things in life that we can live without and things we can’t. We make adjustments, we discover new things we like more, life changes and thought processes that raise us up and improve how we treat ourselves and others we would not have done otherwise.
