start a new life

I downloaded a pdf that focuses on goal setting the other day. I was reading it tonight and need to seriously fill out my goals. My “new” life started about a year ago. It started slowly, however it was still a start. Now that I am combining goal setting, hypnosis, non-traditional healing methods, and new experiences to my life, I can see that things are changing quickly.

I have been working on “new” attitudes with various goals. I am trying to supercharge this aspect of my life by using self-hypnosis. Time to visualize my new life. :) 5 months ago

Today is Halloween. I igured out a costume to wear to work for the morning celebration. Even if I am not full of excitement the night before, it is fun to dress up and have people try to figure out who is behind the mask.

There were some great costumes, and some simple ones that were cute. Other people just enjoyed seeing their coworkers dressed up in costumes. And the building was decorated with bats and pumpkins.

It didn’t take much to participate. Not a lot of effort, very little money. And it made people happy. That is important. 6 months ago

In directions I would not have thought possible even a few months ago. When you open up your mind to new possibilities, it’s amazing how things can change.

My new life is more grounded. I understand how I fit into the world, and accept that I am “me”. (It’s good to be “me”!) I accept responsibility for my health, my actions, and my future. The interesting part is that I can’t really pinpoint where my new life started. There were so many small steps that got me on this path. Changing how I ate, being more interested in how vitamins and minerals affect our health. Being nicer to people and myself. Pushing my boundaries and finding out that it isn’t scary. Looking at who I am, how I feel, and what I want – even if I couldn’t put what I wanted into words.

The universe is a friendly one that helps you along the way. I realized that I lost my way when I started thinking that the universe wasn’t friendly – when work became overwhelming and then my health suffered. Once I changed that belief, things took a turn for the better.

People are here to help us as we go through life. Allow them to help you and the difference is amazing. The help may just be a smile and encouraging word when needed. Or the help may be allowing you to help them. It’s all connected, and that’s the beauty of a friendly universe.

And 43Things has been there for me all this time. Thank you again for the cheers and support you have offered me. It is appreciated. 7 months ago

Since it is my birthday tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to summarize the last year of my life. One year ago I was very unhappy with work. I was also physically burned out and I was stuck in a rut with my life. I worried about what people thought of me. Mostly I was unhappy with the way my life was going (or more appropriately, standing still).

As I tackled my fears and started working on pushing my boundaries, I found that many of the things I was worried about did not happen. And I also recieved a lot of positive praise regarding things I thought people might not like. I consider both of these as victories and they helped me to tackle bigger changes.

Work changed, and that freed me from some bad situations. The change did force me to look at how many “bad” situations I was causing myself. And it allowed me a buffer to re-evaluate how I was interacting with certain people.

Working on my health opened up my eyes and heart to new ways of experiencing the world. At first I fought the changes, but once I decided to just try them I started to see my perspective change in a lot of positive ways. As the stress levels reduced, I slept better. This helped me have a positive outlook on life. And getting rid of the fatigue I had been feeling was a huge help.

Like a house of cards, each little change allowed for more positive changes to be added. I am healthy now, but I am not in perfect health just yet. I deserve to have perfect health – meaning that I have dealt with my emotional self, my physical self and my spiritual self. Each day I am making a little more progress.

I still need to get out and do more activities, and take some vacation time to visit someplace else. I need to continue to walk and then start running again. I want to get back into bicycling, and kayaking. And I want to have a social life again.

During the past year I relearned how important it is to forgive people. And how important it is to love people, especially myself. And how what I eat can affect how I feel more than I thought. Maybe the biggest lesson I relearned is that who I am is not defined by the work I do. Who I am can also change anytime I want to change. And who I am is certainly not based on how I dress, or what I know. It is how I treat other people, how I treat myself, what I take responsibility for, and what I value.

I LIKE who I am! And I look forward to learning more about myself during the coming year.

Happy (re)Birthday to me! 9 months ago

And I could mark this goal complete, however I want to continue with my new life so I am leaving this as a goal. What is interesting about my new life is that I thought it was going to be physical changes in my life that would lead me to my “new” life – a new job, or a new house, or even new friends. Instead it has been mental and emotional changes that have taken me on this journey. Changing my beliefs about myself and others, exploring new ways of thinking, and being open to new ideas about health.

I would have never guessed one month ago that my life would have taken such a significant turn in such a short period of time. It makes me very happy that I was open minded enough to explore new ideas, which are providing some amazing experiences. I have no idea where this journey will take me, and I am fascinated by what I am learning. 9 months ago

I read another short work by Gibran this morning, Of Reason and Knowledge. Again, passages seemed to be just what I needed to think about. “Reason is light in darkness, as anger is darkness amidst light. Be wise – let Reason, not Impulse be your guide.”

The past year was the worst year ever for me at work, and because of that I had a lot of anger that I had trouble dealing with. I got mad at myself, the cats, my co-workers, people driving too slowly down the road, drivers who didn’t use their turn signals, my mom when she wanted me to run errands for her. Just about anyone who I crossed paths with who wasn’t “part of my solution”. It was not a good time…

I have done fairly well to date improving my outlook. It took a lot of changes at work, and in my health, however I wake up in the morning with a smile, and I don’t get angry very often any more. I need to change my focus to “reason”, and continue to move away from anger – because I can still feel anger’s presence in my life. And sometimes when I am tired, or things are not going the way I want, I let anger start to creep back into my thoughts.

My new life is based on Reason and Knowledge, not anger or foolishness.

You can read it here (http://books.google.com/books?id=4PYoczqOoSoC&pg=PT83&lpg=PT83&dq=gibran+reason+and+knowledge&source=bl&ots=JjjWJW6M6W&sig=rzT73hRxfyNu2leo0Qi2aVSMd9I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s2wEUIeIFMXm2QWMrey5BQ&ved=0CFAQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=gibran%20reason%20and%20knowledge&f=false) 10 months ago

Like many of my goals, one thing is dependent upon another. Yes, I can change my wardrobe, my job, even my friends if I want. However, does that truly mean I have a new life if I continue to hold onto my old beliefs and thoughts? It has been an interesting journey and I have come to the conclusion that my new life is really a new attitude towards life. Enjoy new experiences, shed negative thoughts, adopt a new outlook.

I really think it is this easy – if I can keep focused on my new attitude. As I wrote earlier, my life has changed in a lot of ways (and stayed the same in others). Overall, I am happy with the direction I am heading. 10 months ago

I just read all the entries I have written about this goal. It’s been a little over 6 months since I started on this and a lot has changed in my life. New project at work, new front yard, new friendships, new clothes. :)

There are still large areas that I have written about that I haven’t touched – bicycling, kayaking, visiting the zoo, and local museums. I want to focus on these areas in July.

Overall I have made good progress. My health is much better. I have focused on listening more and talking less. I am spending more time with my family, especially my Mom and Dad. I am getting out and trying new things.

I have gone camping again, the first time in several years. I got out of the state for a long weekend. Again, it has been years since I have done that. And I have visited my sister and her family – which I enjoy.

I need to focus on enjoying my weekends more. I should be out doing something every weekend, so that there is a definite demarcation between the work week and weekends. (Maybe I will go to a museum today.)

Finally, I need to decide what my perfect life would be like. Do I want to move? (I think about this a lot.) If so, where would I like to live? I still think that I would like to have a small Spanish style home with a large yard. Room for a lap pool, horses, a large garden, and a big garage to store my toys. But is that what I really want? 10 months ago

my new life includes taking much better care of myself. I am eating whole foods, cooking more, watching what I eat, and getting outside each day. I sleep better at night. I worry less. It is so nice to feel human again. :)

Work is going well. My project hits lots of bumps in the road however I just keep driving forward. It will get done, not the way I first thought it would work though. That’s fine since I can see that I am making progress.

For some reason I am suddenly buying things on ebay. Up until this month I probably bought a grand total of 5 items from ebay. Now I have some items I bid on (I personally hate the hate the hassle of bidding), and I bought a few “buy it now” items. I need to be careful that I am only buying things I actually will use. I did buy a saddle that I don’t need right now. That should change in the near future as I want to lease a horse. Still it is easy to buy things on ebay….

New life:

lease a horse and ride the trails near my home
garden
host a party for my neighbors
cook once a week
try new recipes
run a 5K in 2012
dance in public 10 months ago

My new life involves doing a lot of things that I used to enjoy doing – reading, working in my yard, visiting friends, exercising. The difference is that I have cut back on the amount of work I am willing to do each day. No more 14 hour days. Now I work and then do something besides work. In true chicken and egg fashion, I can’t tell if my attitude has made the difference, or if improving my health has changed my attitude. Either way, it’s all positive. I just wonder at times what started me on this new path. 11 months ago