Friday, December 19, 2014

Ready or not, here comes 2015!

No! I'm not ready! I need more 2014...

2013 saw me get a new dog, a new agent, a new book contract, and new employers.

 A year later, the dog and agent are still awesome, the book contract has been signed and the first draft of the book written, and I found a new employer - myself.  From the outside looking in, I'd say things are about the same but I do believe I'm moving forward. Eventually the steps I've taken should lead me closer to where I want to be.

Some of the steps even appear to be backward but, as a dancer, I know you have to do a lot of sidesteps and pivots if you want to cross the stage. Simply walking from one end to the other is boring!

I feel like I'm slowly stripping away the things that don't make me happy. I've tried to disengage myself from people and situations that don't benefit me intellectually or creatively or spiritually.

And so, I hereby declare 2015 to be the Year of Less.

Less stress.

Less pain.

Less stuff.

The late comedian George Carlin used to do a very funny bit about having "stuff."


The message being that stuff, whether it's yours or mine, tends to rule our lives. But why should it?

Excess baggage, both literal and figurative, weighs us down and causes us to take jobs or spend time with people that we really shouldn't. And this baggage compounds itself: the more time we spend on things and people we don't respect, the more we resent those people and things. And truly, it's our own fault for making those choices in the first place. If we didn't have a shopping/videogame/drug habit that needed to be funded, we wouldn't need to do things that ate at our souls.

So in 2015, I want to be LESS. Less vulnerable to bad decisions. Less aggravated by people and situations that are out of my control. Less dependent on anyone but myself for happiness and financial stability.

Happy holidays and have a blessed and Be Less year!