Remember Your Future.

The past doesn’t equal the future.”

–Tony Robbins

Christmas this year left me feeling really emotional and discontent. Dennis, this has nothing to do with you. Dennis is my husband and he already listened to me whine, but I’m just making sure he remembers that it was my stuff coming up.
It all started with a phone call from my son. He isn’t a phone-talker. He does that for a living, so on his time off, talking on the phone is definitely not his favorite thing. Then I saw all the smiley Facebook and Instagram posts of everyone with their families. We then went to some friends and they had a house full of  people laughing, joking and celebrating.  I missed a bunch of my goals this year, too.  Oh yeah, I was suffering from eating way too much sugar, as well…probably trying to find comfort in See’s Candies and homemade ginger snaps…and everything else I could get my hands on.

I woke up in a funk on the day after Christmas. To top that off, my massage therapist called in sick. Fine. The Committee in my head went nuts. “If you wouldn’t have divorced your husband back in 1980 something, you would have had all your family together. Your son probably still hates you for that. You know how sugar affects you and you ate all that anyway. You still think sugar gives you comfort. Will you ever learn? Stupid. Why reset your goals, you’re not going to make them anyway. You never should have left  your job. Who do you think you are …Blah, blah, blah.”

Could The Committee be right?

WHOA! Wait just a flipping minute. Why don’t you practice what you teach all the time, Girlfriend and replace The Committee voices with The Voice of Truth. Besides, Jan, you have to go shopping today and continuing to cry ruins your makeup. Geesh, what will people think?

I decided to get out my weapons–my pen and journal. I wrote for awhile…and started to come to my senses. I rewrote my vision statement for 2019. I wrote who I want to become and what I want to have and do. December 2019’s goal is a vacation in Hawaii–I really started to feel better.

I had an idea what my word for 2019 could be…so I looked it up.

Wholehearted–unconditional commitment, unstinting devotion (unstinting means not restricting or holding back, generous–what great word. You’re going to see more of that this year.) That word was also defined in a book that I began to read (coincidentally, hahahaha) the day before Christmas, “Dare to Lead,”  by Brene Brown. She defines that word as living and loving with a whole heart, fully alive, fully human and completely awake. A wholehearted person lives this out by daily practicing courage, compassion, connection and empathy.

Wholehearted didn’t totally describe me…UP UNTIL NOW.  From now on I’m going to live from that word because it is my future adjective. Just like the rest of my vision. My mentor and coach, Paul Martinelli, calls it remembering your future. Daily look at your preferred vision for 2019 and live as if it’s already happened. Think about that concept for awhile.

By this time, I was feeling 10-feet-tall, bullet-proof, courageous and confident. And The Committee went mute. The Committee can’t argue with Truth. Funk and oppression dispelled.

The New Year starts tomorrow.  Go ahead, imagine unstintingly what you want 2019 to look like. Throw caution to the wind, write your vision. Write it, suspending the need to know how you’re going to get there. We used to daydream all the time when we were kids. Do that now…and then live as if it’s already happened.

Need a nudge? Call me. May your 2019 be everything you imagine it to be!

Wholeheartedly yours,

Jan