As soon as I saw this sign “MAGIC THIS WAY –>” while in Austin, TX a few days ago, I knew that I had to take a picture and make it an opener here for 2023. Happy New Year y’all!
I love fresh starts! Afterall, I am that person who gets excited for a regular Monday you know. So just imagine how good I must feel around this time with a brand new year in my hands. Also, it helps that my birthday is January 3 which just ups the ante of hopefulness, freshness, happiness, and all around positivity.
2022 was good to me. It was so so good to me. It was the year that I felt the calmest, happiest, and the most content in my then 40-years of being alive. It was the most me that I have ever been without any guilt or sad feelings or explanations. The grass was green on my side.
There are many reasons for this but three stand out the most
- First and foremost was my decision to go back to working full-time which added much needed diversity of thought, tasks, and colleagues to my previous homemaker life. Sure, I work five times as hard now BUT I do it all with gratitude and happiness. Anytime one part of my life gets annoying (say a work project), I focus on my home life. When home life gets annoying I focus on work. This way, I am always able to do what is satisfying.
- Second, we returned to traveling again in 2023. Both near and far. NC Mountains and beaches, Madrid and Barcelona in Spain, Orlando, Miami, and the Keys in Florida, Niagara Falls and Toronto in Canada, New York City, MY SOLO TRIP TO PARIS (!!!). Did I miss a destination? Probably. I am addicted to travel and I finally stopped making apologies for it.
- I calmed the F* down. On my birthday last year, someone asked me what advice I’d give my younger self. Without any hesitation I blurted out – Calm the F* down! It’s true. Starting teenage hood in a new country as an immigrant, combined with being a natural people-pleasure and do-gooder, doesn’t make for a very calming life let me tell you. I was constantly looking for purpose and reason when I should have been focused on simply doing things I enjoyed and having fun without the weight of the world on me. So I am embracing this advice NOW. I am grateful for whatever the Universe gives me – the good and the bad. I am grateful to be alive. I am calm and content. And I have vowed to simply follow my heart and do what feels right, good, and happy. I have stopped fixing sadness. It is a part of life and I am grateful to experience it.
On that note, there are many tiny changes in habits that also made 2022 revolutionary for me. I’ll do my best to share those ideas in the coming weeks, with the hope that I might get to learn something about you and your outlook on life too.
Magic is in the air for sure. I hope it makes 2023 a memorable one. Talk to you soon and Happy New Year again!
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