New Year, New Promise

Every year provides the opportunity to start anew. What promise to yourself and others will you keep in 2024?

Every (New) Year, I choose an intention in the form of a word or cause I want to see through from beginning to end. In 2015, I chose the word "vow" because I was working on some at the time but intended for someone else, and that year reminded me that vows are meant to be gifted to oneself first, before deciding to give to another. It's like the instruction flight attendants give to passengers, "put your oxygen mask on first, before assisting others." Yes, that year was a huge learning and milestone for many different reasons and the year I began to write myself vows, for the days and years that followed.

Since then, I've decided to begin anew with an intention instead of resolutions. Why you ask? Because resolutions can also be broken, but the feeling behind your "why" has a more profound and long-term effect, which I've found can last an entire year! Resolutions can be fleeting and flaky - like a storm they come to clear ways and then disappear into the ether to never, ever be seen or faced again. It's also a more external effort - it tends to prove to the outside world that we can conquer whatever we set out to for proof's vs. one's sake.

A vow to self however, is sacred. A promise to oneself is a symbol of the gap you fill between the words you speak and actions you take. It is that significant and powerful.

Over the years, I've chosen to "believe", "trust", "flow"... and "connect with source" to name a few. Each year has resulted in purposely living out those values through my words and actions.

This year, it's all about "goals" and seeing things through from beginning to end regardless of how broken and flawed "the how" in achieving those may be. Like life, some bits and pieces are messy and nothing is perfect. I've witnessed just how much perfectionism has halted me from taking leaps throughout my life and the older I get the less tolerant I become of my perfectionist ways.

In order to move forward, I've asked Miss Perfect, yes Little Miss OCD, to step aside and let the person I've envisioned myself to be show up and come through. It's the only way I know how to guide and facilitate my mentees and clients. To be perfectly imperfect and trust that, the messy middle, is part of a greater plan. That no rugs get pulled from underneath us without a higher purpose and that every single instance, regardless of how bad it seems on the outside, once we start peeling the layers away, is a gift waiting to be unwrapped.

I thank G-d every day for the people, friends, family and loved ones he's brought into my life - for they are the reason I continue to evolve and strive to give back. For the vision and will to see sun rays through storms.

This year is about sharing all that I've learned, applying all the lessons from past heartaches, mistakes, and silly dead ends so that others don't have to go through similar. 2024 is the year that all the love, endeavor, resiliency, and strength return to us like a boomerang. I see it as the year of exponential growth and vigor. May it be so, for those who are still with me through these thoughts and who bear witness to the transformation that each one of us will take.

May this year bless each and every one of you with __________ (your intention in 2024). May awareness and self-realization reign. May your purpose and vision for yourself guide all your interactions, exchanges, and gap you choose to mind - once and for all. I wish you all a bright and stellar new year. A year that transforms negatives into positives and values the blessing of every single day.