Old Year's Night

.....As its referred to in the West Indies. It’s that time of year again!

Time to close out one year and usher in a new one.  For some odd reason I was up really early this morning. So early in fact I was able to see Sydney usher in 2014 and as I write this it’s about eight minutes until midnight in Dubai and I am tuned in to see the city’s said record breaking fireworks display. I enjoy the ringing in of a new year and will continue to sneak peaks of various places around the world as they show the world their take on the tradition.

Suffice it to say 2013 was not without its challenges but as I spent that last couple of weeks reviewing, reflecting and unravelling, I realize all of it was not so bad.  But the bottom line is I do feel like I didn’t accomplish anything.  That may be stretching it a bit but I wanted to see a lot of changes in 2013 and didn’t.  I got discouraged when the big things didn’t work in my favor. Truth be told even when I dropped the ball, I didn’t pick it back up. By March I had become a statistic in New Year resolution planning.

I learned two lessons from that.

• I will not have 20 BIG things to do in only 365 days. 
• Something I hear ALL the time and should have adapted by now- I will make the goals S.M.A.R.T goals (specific measurable attainable realistic and timely). Why I didn’t do this for 2013 I do not know. I can only attribute it to a big move and travelling for the entire month of December though as I type it - it looks like an excuse. Sigh.

In reviewing the goals I have written down for 2014, I can say the overall focus has to do with my health.  I am in the final stages of CLARIFYING exactly what this means (trying to be S.M.A.R.T.) but it is my hope when I reflect on this at the end of 2014 I will have accomplished what I set out to do. 

What’s on your list to accomplish in 2014? However small or large I hope that you are successful in meeting and keeping those goals.

Here’s wishing you an absolutely fantabulous New Year celebration and New Year! Be safe and take a sip of something yummy and bubbly for me. I plan to stay in and take it in through the various national news outlets.

Besos,

Mel

Image courtesy of hdwallpapersinn.com

Happy New Year

Can I still say that? I think so. Its still the first week of the New Year. So I will take the time right now to wish you all the best. Much success and happiness in all that you do in the new year.

Sadly, I had to go to Trinidad for a funeral and at the last minute decided not to take my computer. BIG BIG BIG mistake. I wish now I had taken it because I could've updated my blog. I thought about logging on to my Mom's computer but I my nephew and brother were there so computer time was limited.

My new year was pretty good. I actually spent it with my sisters but on the eve of New Year's Eve, my brother and nephew played the 'what do you want to accomplish in 2K11? game. We had a really good time discussing our goals and dreams for the new year. Since coming back, I may tweak a couple of the goals I hope to accomplish (we chose 10). I plan to have that done no later than Thursday of the coming week - I returned Thursday so I figure a week should be ample time to get it done.

One of my ten goals is to increase my writing on my blog. I even added it to my planner to make sure I get it in. I will definitely be taking the one day at a time approach to writing. I have put a lot of pressure on myself to write daily and then fall deep into a hole when I don't get it done. I will not do that this time around.

How are you approaching resolutions and the like? Do you get out the gate in a flash only to die down by the end of the month? How do you plan to stick with your resolutions?

Happy New Year!!!

Time is a thief, or so the saying goes. I had planned to post this earlier today and well you know the end of the story. Here's wishing you all a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year. May you accomplish ALL that you set out to do in the coming days weeks and months. 

For those of you shooting for a better YOU and are planner type people searching for a way to stay organized, check out my planner, made by Planner Pads. They are fairly inexpensive and easy to use. You can either check out the website here or if your still in looking mode and  want to know more about it from a user point of view, you can listen to a podcast done by one of my favorite bloggers Julia Coney of All About the Pretty and a few of her friends Kimberly Wilson & Joanna Lo explaining how they use their planner pads here.  I will definitely be checking Ms. Wilson's site out on the regular. Also another quick note...if you live in the DC are Ms. Coney  and Ms. Lo are planning a Makeover and Takeover class. Check out her 28 December post for more information. Gosh I wish I could pop into DC for that. 

If paper is not your thing,  check out a few podcasts that I have come across including morning coach.com and my thought coach.com.  I accidentally came across a few of these referencing something else - Ms. Wilson's Tranquility Du Jour to be EXACT ! Some of them are lengthy but worth it. Unfortunately I don't know how to link it. Just head over to iTunes and do a search in the podcasts. They have been pretty informative so far,  a good thing to come across on my break.... 

Lastly, I tried to think of the one thing I would like to do most in 2009 and I realized the reason I couldn't come up with that one thing is because there wasn't one and they were all intertwined with each other. I decided the best way to sum it all up was the chorus of  T.I. and Rihanna's  Live Your Life.  And yes, I know you know that I know that I could have come up with another way to say this but hey go with it....

 

Go out and live YOUR life in 2009... See you on that road 

Mel