2009 : The Year of CP

So we're in the 2nd month of 2009, and the Chinese just celebrated their new year. It's now The Year of the Ox, but it's ALSO The Year of CP!

Over the last few years, I've put other peoples' needs above my own and failed to take care of myself way too much. At the end of 2008, I started to realize that my happy face wasn't me being REALLY happy, it was me ACTING happy. I'm not saying I was never happy, some great things happened in the last few years. Under everything good AND bad, though, was this churning pool of negative energy that I needed to do something about. I've decided 2009 is the year that I'm going to do that, and I'm already seeing the results.

The first thing I needed to address was my physical health. I was run down and not sleeping well, knew that my blood pressure and cholesterol were out of wack from eating crappy food at the nursing home, etc. for so long, and it was time to quit being an idiot about it. Now, I've got a "real" doctor, not just the goofy clinic place I used to go to. My doctor did the whole workup, made some recommendations about diet and sleep, and is overall a great, positive guy. If you live in the area and need a doctor, go see Dr. Pettway at Family Healthcare in Arlington. I also gave up fast food, for the most part, something I'd done before and was happy with the results. Now, I'm saving money AND eating better!

Next up was my emotional well-being. I have some wonderful friends, but I also have / had some people in my life that were only adding to the bad parts of my life. If I was the only one putting anything into our relationship, was it really a friendship? No, not really. I've started to address that, and have made this a real priority for me. Being "selfish" (that's how it feels to put myself first) is tough for me, but I think it's important for me in the long-term.

Ah, stress. That's a tough one to tackle. I have had issues with being unable / unwilling to say "No." to people. That's left me with 2 Board of Director positions on non-profits and a few other commitments that left me with very little "me time". I'm working on that, and have said no to a couple of requests lately that would have put even more on my plate. I'm also working on ignoring the criticisms of people I don't respect, and am trying to let them just roll off me. Any time you volunteer, you're setting yourself up for people to criticise the work you do while they aren't doing any themselves. You can choose to pay attention to it and stress out when it happens, or you can ignore it. I know which I'm doing now! I've also scheduled my first real vacation in several years, I'm going on a cruise (just me!) in July from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico. I'm also trying to get more sleep, but that's still a struggle for me.

I'm going to tackle some more projects at home, I already bought a dishwasher, ripped out some cabinetry, and had the plumber out to install it for me. I LOVE having it, and will be eating at home more now. Next up is cleaning the house up more (I started in December, but have a ways to go) and then fixing up the rest of my kitchen and my bathroom.

I'm really excited to have re-connected with some old friends, something I've been missing. I'll be working harder to make sure we don't lose touch again, because they are all part of who I am today. I am awed by some of the things they've accomplished, am jealous of where some of them find themselves today, and am inspired by their successes.

So, you may see some changes this year, and you may hear me urging you to make 2009 "The Year of You", because I know a lot of you are in the same boat I was / am. Together, I think we can all make even more out of this life than we have already, and that's not too shabby!