Commitment

Like most of you I have been thinking a lot about what I want to create in the New Year.  I have been through a lot of changes in my personal life in the past two years along with starting Bamboo Leaf Tea and I wanted to really get clear on where I was going and what I wanted to accomplish in the next 12 months.  Here are a few ways that I am working on my list this year and I thought I would share them with you.  It never ceases to amaze me that showing up consistently is 70% of the game.  So dig in and focus on what you want then take some steps that move you in that direction.  If by June you have fallen to the side just get back on and try again.  Everyday is a new beginning.

So on my list are things that have been on my list forever.  Things like exercise regularly and make healthy foods for me and my kids.  (By the way my son asked how I could make New Year’s resolutions for other people and my answer was that as a parent I got to do that until he was at least 18. 🙂  Those two items have been on my list and probably yours since I started making a list.  But when I think about it they are not a goal that you achieve and then it’s done.  They are a life style a choice of what I want to do everyday.  And while I might be busy and not have time to catch a yoga class today I do try to get to the gym so many times a week.  This is a commitment that I make to myself to value my body that I live in and take care of it.  It is also something that I build on every year.  If I look back over the past ten years and especially over the last twenty I can see how far I have come.  I find this to be encouraging because I know that I am trying new things and having fun with it in the mean time.  I re-commit every year at new years when I resolve to continue on this path and I look for new areas of health that are exciting to me and find ways to bring them into my life.

Other parts of my list are a lot more goal oriented.  For those goals I am trying this year to get really specific.  I would like to increase my income so I am listing exactly how much I would like to make this year. I am then writing some ways that I might start to take action on these goals.  Next to each goal I am also writing ideas of what emotional blocks might be holding me back.  I have found that most of the goals that have not gone as far as I wanted them to were because of an a conflicting part of me that blocked it’s progress.  So I want to make more money but I feel like it might make me a different person then I am.  Or I want to forgive someone but then I can’t play the victim and feel sorry for myself.  When I can see what emotional block might be keeping me from achieving my goal I can work on letting it go and truly committing to my future self.

A few goals on my list involve accepting help even if it isn’t exactly the way that I want it.  That’s a tough one.  So maybe there is something that you need to get assistance with but it comes in a form that isn’t how you would have done it.  Letting go of the control can be painful but it can also be balancing.  This doesn’t mean that you need to let your quality of life go or let your responsibilities lag.  It does mean that others may help you in ways that might surprise you or that you might try seeing their help in a different light.  Try visualizing that help all the way through and then open up to the possibility that it might even be better in some ways.  Committing to an expectation of another person is sure to disappoint but allowing for the idea that something different from your way could be just that something different opens up more possibilities and if it really doesn’t work ask someone else and try again.  The key word is accepting.  You can’t control someone else, their actions, their feelings, or their beliefs you can only choose to accept what they offer or move on.

I try to every week take actions that contribute to the bigger picture and then to make room for committing to my everyday life.  To go too far into one or the other gets me out of balance.  If I am always thinking of what I am going to do I miss out on the now.  If I don’t take time to make that juice or take that walk I won’t be ready for the big stuff coming.  Overall my goal this year is to truly commit to the goals that I want to reach.  In doing so I may need to let go of some crutches and I may need to limit my choices.  So here we go.  Happy 2013!