I love starts and finishes. Today is the end of a decade. Tomorrow starts a new one.
There is a premise some believe that if you don't "get the lesson" you are bound to repeat the behavior until you do get it.
Let me say loud and clear....I got it! I am sometimes a slow learner but this time I got it. Lesson learned. NO need to repeat again.
Here is what it took me a decade to learn...if you don't take care of yourself...sooner or later...you have nothing left and you cannot even help yourself. As I said...lesson learned.
I have lived a life of service to others which has been a wonderful thing but along the way...I forgot to take care of me. I simply did not pay attention. I didn't. Heck even the airlines tell you to put your own oxygen mask on first then help the child sitting next to you! Maybe I should have flown more? LOL
I have paid a tremendous price. A tremendous price. And just because I now, honestly, get the lesson...that does not mean that I am magically in a fabulous position.
I feel like the general who when told that he and his men were surrounded...replied, "Well at least we can attack in any direction!"
When you have fallen...things in most areas of your life can be affected. From your finances to your health to your employment to your relationships. The good news, the very very good news is when you stand up again...you can deal with them. Pick up the pieces you still want, discard what no longer works and build a life that you want...maybe it's the one you wanted for everyone else but forgot to tend for yourself. Maybe it's not. Maybe it is something wholly different that you yearn for. You get to decide. And while there is power in that decision, there is also the responsibility to put action into making it happen for yourself.
I use to say to people I dealt with in our domestic violence shelter as they talked about their future..."I can't want this more for you than you do". Those words echo back to me every day now. I have to want this for myself. No one can want it for me more than I do. And I can't want it more FOR you than you do. But together...we can make this the best decade yet. It's my commitment to myself and to you.
Tomorrow I will share with you my intentions for the next year and some of the tools I plan to use. You can hold me accountable for what I say I want and I will do the same for you.
You may have to walk this path yourself but that doesn't mean a little company along for the walk is not a very good thing! (Plus I am known for bringing snacks!!!!)
See you tomorrow...