It’s Time For Our Annual Attitude Adjustment

Gooooood morning, Sparkle Puff. (Okay, well, it was morning when I started this. But then the doorbell rang, and one of our kids needed help with her entrpreneurial plan and another had a fashion question and the drier finished and lunch needed to be prepared and…

…7 hours later I have finally managed to free myself enough to finish this blog post. I don’t know about the kids, but I can’t wait for school to start on Monday. )

I admit I was feeling just kinda ordinary this morning (a bit of indigestion after this week’s festivities) until I sat down to do my own reflections of 2009. I looked back through the calendar and went through, month by month, taking mental note of all that had happened. It didn’t take long, but WHAT A TRIP! If you haven’t done it yet, DO IT! At first all I noticed were the dramatic things–January was a bit rough. With the hope that it might inspire you to fit in the time to do your own reflections in detail before settling into the goal setting exercises we’ll be doing throughout the weeks to come, here are a few of my observations about the successes of 2009:

Personally:

I fell in love and worked through the bumpy parts of a new relationship where you look for every exit door you can find before deciding to make love work with a person.

I became a better mom and actually went through some A M A Z I N G marriage counseling with my ex-husband. After 6 years of having been divorced!!, we actually ironed out the wrinkles in our relationship and became amazing co-parents and good friends to each other! Then we put the kids on a much better schedule and just got them feeling and behaving SO confident and SO darn cool. Yes, we are still divorced.

I started getting a lot more sleep and had a whole hot yoga binge in March that I looooved. I swam, skated and cross-country skied. I strapped on my shoes and adventured over the big bridge near my house a few times. I did a juice fast and started green juicing for the first time after almost 7 years of being a raw foodist.

Professionally:

I created WISH: Women’s International Summit for Health and in preparation for it interviewed some of the most incredible people I have ever known. In 2010 I’ll be bringing it to life on March 8 (International Women’s Day) and I cannot begin to express how escited I am about it. I did the Raw Mom Summit with Shannon and we had such a powerful and positive impact on the Raw Food Community, that we decided to spread the circle of influence a bit wider.

I developed the 6 Week Deep Tissue Detox with Ritamarie and spent huge amounts of time revising, improving and finally launching it. 2010 will be the year I actually do it myself!

I became partners with Crudessence and was assigned as the “Director” of their workshops and community programming.

The other thing that stands out in 2009 are a few moments I took to make some smart decisions about how to manage my business–a moment of clarity and confidence. I was simply deciding NOT to do something, but knowing that I would put my energy in the right place felt fantastic. I got excited about  the fact that something as simple as a decision could get me feeling so enthusiastic and hopeful so quickly. It propelled me to pick up my e-pen and start writing to you. Not about productivity, performance or promises that were kept. I wanted to write to you about the power of decision making. When I look back the things that excited and inspired me the most about 2009, it was the DECISIONS that I made to take charge of my life or business in a positive way and improve things.

That’s why it is SO important that you take the time NOW to chart your course for the year ahead. NOW you are setting your goals and making objectives and DECISIONS about how you want your life to be this year.

Today (January 2nd) we’re supposed to be looking at Attitude. (I wanted to wait a bit before hitting the obvious food, fitness, etc. Many people are still on vacation and getting back into gear with things, too.)

How do you look at your life? When you consider the things that happen in a day, a week, a year, how do you view your role in it all?
Do you view yourself as the passive participant in the soap opera of life, or are you the clever creator of all that happens to you?
When you wake up in the morning, are you ready and rarin’ to take on the day, or dreading the never-ending to do list?

When you walk in the street and look out at other people, what kind of thoughts are you thinking?
What about when you look at yourself in the mirror? Are you critical and judgmental, or compassionate and kind? What about in your relationships and professional life? When things aren’t going well, do you point the finger, or ask yourself what more you can take responsibility for?
Do you hear yourself making a lot of excuses or apologies?
Do you validate the things that go right or feel focused on where things are troubled and difficult?

We talk a lot about food, diet and exercise. We talk a lot about enemas and superfoods and drinking enough water. We talk a lot about the things we have to get done in a day, but criticism is bad for your liver and anger makes your armpits stink! Grumpiness puts ugly wrinkles all over your forehead and face, too! There is nothing beautiful, attractive or remotely empowering about being a GRUMP or a complainer. So let’s make this the year of good vibrations, baby!! Out with the crust, lift up your bust and show the world how beautiful life is!!

Understand that crabby people don’t feel good about themselves or they wouldn’t be crabby in the first place. Rather than bitch and complain about what other people do wrong, do it right. Rather than tell other people they’ve pissed you off, tell them how much you appreciate something they did.

When you feel like everything is wrong, find the one thing that is right about it all, and things will all turn around. Life is as positive and as pleasurable as you are able to wrap your attitude around your experiences. I could talk about this one for hours, and in fact, if at least 10 people ask for it, I’ll give you a special spiritual butt-kicking teleseminar all about it.

At the end of your days, it won’t be the car, the house, or the clutter in your cupboards that fills your soul and lets you leave this world in peace. It will be the choices you made to love in the face of opposition, to persist in the face of adversity and to believe when everyone else has given up. It will be the moments you lived and loved at your very best that will stand out and lift your soul to a higher place, or (if you’re not a soul-subscrber) it will simply give you the satisfaction of having lived a meaningful, empowered life.

Reach out, stretch your heart wide open and make enough room to love one more person. Then make enough room to love them all and watch how doing so makes loving yourself a whole lot easier. You can do it, Sunshine. You can make this your best year EVER. I know you can and I’m rooting for you until my pom-poms fall apart!

Go, Girl, Go!