While a new year encourages serious self-critique and making lists of things to change, I just wanted to provide a friendly reminder that you are already perfect.
Oprah once said, “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” She implies we’ve been getting it wrong, and granted, some years are better than others. But if you think about it, common resolutions like making money, finding “happiness” or losing weight aren’t about us. They are about how we think the world wants us to be. Rich, happy and hot. (and often quite empty…)
The re-set button we call New Years should be less about improving what has been, and more about what is. What do we really want and why are we really here? What does happiness even mean to us?
This week I swept the love of my life to the mountains for a few days. I recommend a mind-clearing getaway like this, regardless if you are single or have a partner, at least twice a year. Amidst parenthood, work, life, stress, family – there was a lot of catching up to do, even though we spend so much time together. Furthermore, there were realizations about myself that were only possible to be revealed in the crisp stillness you find early in the morning, at 12,000 feet, accompanied by the soundtrack of Clear Creek rushing below our hotel balcony. (A photo of my view as I write this is posted above.)
In peace, there are answers.
This year I’m going to take my own advice from a previous blog post to get organized, clear and focused. But beyond that, my new years resolution for 2012 is to live an authentic life. According to Dictionary.com, the meaning of the word authentic is: not false or copied; genuine; real. These are the lives we are meant to lead, not to be a carbon copy of someone else or a life that someone else wants you to live.
So on the eve of another chance to get it right, answer this. What true purpose have you been ignoring? What life change has been nagging at you, but seems too terrifying or inconvenient to acknowledge? What truth has gone unacknowledged, or unsaid? How can you live more authentically this year?
Jazz legend Chuck Mangione once said, “A studio recording is perfection, but emotion and passion come only when you turn on the machine and go for the groove. If you do that with no mistakes, it sounds beautiful.”
In 2012 and beyond, I wish for you the stillness necessary to seek your truth, abundant self-permission to live your life and a jammin’ bassline to keep your groove.
