A fresh start...

December 29, 2011

A fresh start...

Well it's that time of year again. Time to make a bunch of promises to yourself that you don't intend to keep...or at least that's been my experience for the most part. Most of these New Year's Resolutions had the best intentions...and in fact, there is a short list of repeat issues I would plan to resolve with little planing aside for stating it to myself. I mean if you say them out loud where others can here you you may be compelled to actually try to follow through or at the very least feel guilty that you not only failed but didn't even really give it a good effort!

But I am determined to use this new year as an opportunity to gain balance in my health, work and life.

HEALTH

For the past couple of years I have been dealing with chronic bronchitis and sinusitis. While this is not life threatening, it has been a constant battle to feel good which is a problem. It affects my time with my family and friends, work and my general well being as I do not get much "good" sleep with the constant congestion, coughing and closed throat. I have even developed an allergy induced asthma. I have recently gone to an Allergist to try and rule out causes. So far the tests have been little help to figuring out why I cannot seem to shake this. But I feel like we are at least crossing things off my list. Thankfully I officially know that I am not allergic to my sweet pups which I was starting to wonder about. And to my husband's dismay... I am not allergic to dust. With all of that being said I am on a mission to find out the cause and treat it, fix it, manage it but to definitely deal with it! This has gone on long enough.
Another area I am ready to tackle...my weight. I have yo-yo'd for so long and have given up so many times I have lost count. I am blessed with great blood pressure and good cholesterol numbers but my BMI is so far away from where I should be that it looks daunting. Well, I am ready to take back my body. As a self proclaimed "control freak" I can't believe I have not been able to tame this particular beast in my life. So now I've put this in writing...it's hard to hide from. More to come on this particular challenge to myself!

WORK

Let me start by saying I love my job and feel fortunate to be where I am doing what I do. That being said the amount of work is constantly increasing with little help or relief at times. It's good to be busy but I often feel like I'm drowning. I am going to strive to cut out stress...it's not a real thing anyway. We create stress in our attitudes, reactions, pressure we put on ourselves and how we let others affect our mood. So I am going to go back to a quote that I tried to live by when I was in college:

This is always a good reminder to go with the flow. It will all get done as soon as I can do it to the best of my ability. Please note that this is not a pass to slack off or not care about what I do, on the contrary, it's just simply an effort to take the "emergency" out of the task. I am good at setting priorities and I love to make lists especially about tasks to do at work. The mental shift is to enhance those skills and make me more positively productive. I feel like I may have wasted too much time in the past few months worrying and stressing (two wasted actions in themselves) about the work to be done. That stops now. I don't want to just love what I do I want to genuinely enjoy it and look forward to it!

LIFE

I have to say...I'm pretty happy. What I'm seeking in my life is to enjoy it MORE! I feel like this will be helped if I can begin to take care of my health and work better...in general, life will be more enjoyable...right? It's really that simple.

I am the only person who can do this for me. I know what to do...and I am ready! Big goals, small victories, making better choices, more conscious choices...2012 is my year to focus on ME!