a.new.direction

Today has been a really interesting day. My coworker and I were discussing one of our biggest issues in life and how it is giving so much to others that we tend to forget about ourselves. We decided that this year would be the year that we really focused on ourselves and what we could do to “create an excellent me.”

What is really funny is that this is something I’ve been majorly struggling with. I do alot for myself but I felt it was kind of selfish to start to add more shine to my life. But I realized hey if I don’t do it who really will. We were also discussing letting go of people and things that aren’t enhancing our lives. This is also something I have been really thinking about that has been weighing heavy on my heart for months.  She mentioned a passage that her pastor read that came from Luke chapter 9

Jesus called together his twelve apostles and gave them complete power over all demons and diseases. 2Then he sent them to tell about God’s kingdom and to heal the sick. 3He told them, “Don’t take anything with you! Don’t take a walking stick or a traveling bag or food or money or even a change of clothes. 4When you are welcomed into a home, stay there until you leave that town. 5If people won’t welcome you, leave the town and shake the dust from your feet ^[a] as a warning to them.” 6The apostles left and went from village to village, telling the good news and healing people everywhere.

It was nothing but God that I read that. It’s written right there to essentially go out with no baggage and take a journey. If people welcome you stay there if not brush the dirt off and keep moving to the next thing. That was my mini aha moment where I realized with some people it’s time for me to go ahead and move to the next town. Leave them in 08 and get up and leave for 09. The funny thing she mentioned that her pastor said was if the people you are leaving behind are smart and good for you they will get their stuff and come to the next town with you. Otherwise leave it behind. It’s funny that in my planner I have different things for each month that I want to do to enhance my life. For January it said rid myself of anything that isn’t making a positive impact on my life. That conversation and scripture was such a confirmation.

Throughout the day various things happened that seemed to test me and my new attitude is to really go with the flow until I can find a solution to make things better. When I left work I decided to go to the bookstore to see if I saw anything I liked and I came across a few books that were really excellent that I ended up buying. One book I sat and took notes from (shhh don’t tell). I randomly came across it but it was the book I was looking for it’s called The List: 100 Ways to Shake Up Your Life. It’s essentially various things that push readers to do something they’ve always dreamed of or to do something they’ve never dared consider and it gives stories of women that have done them. Some things I’m just not going to do (like sleep with some random or get plastic surgery lol) but other things are stuff that I want to do but wouldnt have popped in my mind like taking a class to learn how to sail or spending 24 hours in bed or even shooting a gun.

Also read a little book called The Traveler. It was really short and maybe 50 pages if that but it was a great story that showed how one can seek perfection and miss all the great things that happen in life all around you.

I also picked up a few other books so my reading for the next few weeks should be great. Going in the bookstore which was totally unplanned really helped solidify some things for me. I was supposed to go to a happy hour but instead spent an evening writing and processing and reading things to simply put create an excellent me this year.