Happy New Year 2023! 

What the new year means to me, to you, to the world. It means something different for everyone. Some create resolutions for the new year to be new person, new goals. I am often reminded of when I would attend my local gym, a 24-hour fitness which by the way is no longer open 24 hours since the pandemic. After each new year I would see a new crop of those who joined to kick off a year of health only to see that many no longer there a few weeks after. Some may say well what is wrong with that, people are trying to get healthy. The problem with that many of those who joined never intended on being serious and you know sadly many of us are like that.

Change is right around the corner

We all want to change for the better and a new year gives each of us a fresh start. One of the best years of health was in January 2021 when I looked at myself in the mirror, at pictures and actually hated myself. Maybe I have always hated myself, but I said to myself I can change, I need to change for myself and my family and have lost about sixty pounds, some of the weight has come back but in the form on muscle. I look at before and after pictures of myself from last year and attempt to remember that time in my life. Although a year is not that long ago sometimes, we forget how much we have grown in a year.

Maybe not physically but maybe mentally, maybe spiritually, maybe more mature in our thinking. I often self-reflect on the man I am today, feeling a sense of regret that I was not the man I am today many years ago. Many years ago, I was full of self-hate, full of self-doubt, someone who didn’t see my true value thinking and waiting for the validation of others to tell me I was valuable. But when I had my family wife and daughter I in time could see my value, appreciate my value as I raise my daughter and see her growing, changing and maturing and it’s a real gift.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Today I try not to worry like I once did as I have vowed to not let things get to me like they once did, things I had no control over. I have learned that life is messy and as much as many of us like to make life fit into a nice box we can’t. We are bound to fail daily, sometimes royally because as human beings we are imperfect.

After last year when I unfortunately contracted Covid, something within me changed like a switch in me when off as if I was  once blind could see. That all the things I worried about didn’t really matter. I started to see that I made it this far in life and I shouldn’t fear any more, asking myself what am I fearing. For years I stood ideally by , year after year as life passed me by, not always enjoying and appreciating what I had.

My wife often reminds me of my unhappiness, even during the times that should have been the happiness like my daughter but she is right. Often I was angry, depressed, dissatisfied with my life and what and how I was providing to my family, although I worked hard, slaving to get ahead but always in the same place.

In the new year, I hope you be stronger but physically and mentally, be wiser and more cunning in this life as I am now 43 years old, years away from a new milestone, mid-life.

Whatever Stage your Life, you can make your life Count!

Maybe your beginning your life, maybe you are a teen, a child, an adult and maybe you are an elder who has life a long life already. None the less we can all take this new year and grow in news ways I never thought possible. I am someone who tries to believe there are new possibilities, we just have to try , put in the effort and see what takes place.

Laugh more, enjoy life more, appreciate life more, because life truly is short. I am often reminded of that daily as there is always someone who passes this life, often the young who are full of hope that leave this earth by their own hand or some other way, death is inevitable.

Love more, appreciate those in our life more, family, friends, co-workers and even the stranger on the street as we are all in this together, all human for the most part. We all have a choice to make in how we treat ourselves, how we see others and our perspective.

Create your Own Perspective

My new perspective is to not worry about what I can not control, almost not to care but deep down like most of us we care but I have seen worry take over my life for years and for what.

Make 2023 a banner year of self-growth, of love and know that you can choose to be happy and not let this world bring you down. The world today is not always full of love, but of hate, of anger but we do not have to choose to partake in this behavior.

Live each day like its your last, hopefully its not your last but if it is go out appreciating life, because life is messy and complex but we do not have to make that way, especially on yourself.

New years resolutions are ok, but remember that they often fade within weeks or months, choose to live each day anew make goals every day.

Have a great new year!