The Year in Review and The Year Ahead

The other day I posed this question in my Street Team page – What is your New Year’s Resolution? I was surprised to find that most of us don’t have one. That seemed odd to me, considering I spend the last week of every year stressing out about the new year ahead. Knowing that I get to start a year over makes me anxious. Especially when the year that just passed was a good one. You see, I’m superstitious that way. I have always believed that the good years alternate with the bad. And 2015 was a very good year Does that mean 2016 will be awful?

I hope not.

Because I’m counting on the investments that I made in 2015. In friendships. In love. In my career. In my ability to stand up for my truth.

In 2015 I came out to family and friends back home about my first three books. And the overwhelming support that I have for this new book is humbling. In 2015, I told the people I loved how much they meant to me, I told them often, whether or not they loved me back. In 2015, I also began to accept the fact that I’ve changed. That every once in a while, I needed space. And I am so lucky to be loved by a man who respects that. In 2015, I also watched as my children began finding their place in the world – one is head over heels in love, one is looking forward to becoming a nurse, and the other one, well, he wants to stay on the football team while at the same time maintaining highest honors at his school. They are loved so much, that they will never be discouraged by all the ugliness in the world. I reconnected with my sisters. I’d been too busy in the past to take the time to be a part of their lives. My younger sister is walking! You should have seen her weave through the aisles at the Burberry store last Thanksgiving.

In 2015, I wrote a presentation in French. And finished that darn book.

And I also listened to my Executive Coach when she told me to categorize my friends from A to D, get rid of the D’s, make the C’s into B’s and only keep the A’s and B’s.

(Okay, I have one or two more D’s. This will be the year of the goodbye D.)

In 2015, I had also worked an equivalent of 380 days by October. I also hit Executive Platinum on my mileage and hotel status. Woohoo!

There are also things I didn’t get to do.

I have yet to clean out my closet. I have yet to find a way to store my shoes. I have yet to remind myself that Louboutins are the most uncomfortable shoes in the entire universe. I have yet to stop sneaking a cigarette while hiding behind the dryer vent in the dead of winter. Or attend more than two sessions of Crossfit. I have yet to stop obsessing about things I can’t control. And I really, really, really have to stop ruining my nails with gel polish.

I’m so lucky they’re such little things.

This year, invest in the things that matter. May 2016 bring you all the many happy returns you deserve.