New Year, New You

Every year we are encouraged to come up with new goals and new aspirations. It is certainly a time, if we are not going to change our goals to evaluate the ones we have and revise our game plan if we have not reached the levels in our life plan that we are striving for. But what if we have reached a point where we have stopped trying. Stopped believing. Stopped dreaming. These are certainly difficult and often confusing times. Tragedies abound. Every day there seems to be a mass shooting, a major loss and its easy to lose an important piece of our collective soul. Its easy to give up hope and become stuck and complacent, even feeling helpless in our circumstances. But its not too late, even for those of us in the mid age range, to consider that a fresh look at yourself inwardly brings surprising results outwardly. Forget the scripts you were given as a child, forget the scripts you were handed down as a member of a community repeatedly marginalized, forget the gender scripts. Forget the limits you placed on your dreams because other needs were more pressing. And try to visualize how things could be if and then fill in the blanks with what's missing. What is the if that is holding you back? That's the if and the barrier you have to work on moving out of the way. It doesn't happen overnight. You may not see the clear picture of your new vision but its the start of redifining your vision. For me, it took a move to a new city. It seemed impossible but it happened and it was just what I needed

. Don't let anyone tell you that you have to accept your circumstances as they are and that you are just making excuses. Sometimes the "if" is as major as a move, a removal of a relationship, a change in career to get to your new you, better tomorrow.