Ylliks

Moving into a new place takes a lot of work. Not only the move itself, but also the amount of work you have to do to get a new apartment ready for the actual move. And it’s in times like these that I realize I have an amazing group of friends and family who are willing to help me out.

Whether it’s my mom and dad who are ready with their help and advice, my sister, brother in law and nieces who give up their free time or my friends who help without hesitation, they make me realize that they’re a great group of people to know and love. I make it a habit to thank them on whenever and however they help out but I just hope that they actually know how much I appreciate what they do.

Because I do know one thing: you can have all the Twitter followers or Facebook friends in the world, but it’s people like these who really count.

First of all the best of wishes for 2011! May this year be everything you hope it will.

And with the new year come New Year resolutions. For me these resolutions are more general goals that I want to achieve (see last year) but I thought there were too many to just list them here. Then yesterday I read this post by Chris Brogan and I thought I could capture how I want to achieve things in 3 words as well. So here they are:

SOCIAL. EXPERIMENT. EXECUTION.

These words will be the 3 guidelines that I want to base many of my decisions on.

Social

As stated last year I’m open to meeting some new and interesting people. I’ve had the good fortune to meet and spend time with a couple of great people but there’s always room for more, either in a personal or business situation. This means the introvert me will have to give me some free reigns to be more outgoing and open.

Experiment

I’ve talked about my experiments on this blog before and I’m planning to do more of that. Mostly to find out what it is that I exactly want out of life. Don’t get me wrong: there’s a whole lot to like about the life I’m living but I think there can be some improvement both on a personal and business level. And you won’t know if a change you want to make works before you try it.

Execution

I’ve become a bit of a slacker when it comes to doing certain things well. Doing things a bit half-assed so to say. Not that I’ve let people down or caused damage with the way I do things, but I always held myself to a pretty high standard and it seems that during the last year or so I let some of those standards slide. So whatever it is I do in life, whether it’s a change of something I’ve done for ages, I’ll have to go all in and with determination or just don’t do it at all.

I know 2011 will be a year that will throw some challenges my way. Whether it’s my impending move this month, the search for a new source of income, the last leg of my weight loss or any other thing that might pub up. That’s OK though. I love a challenge. Bring it on!

Whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or any other holiday you’re celebrating, I hope you’re having a great time spending it with family, loved ones, friends or anybody else who’s dear to you.

Also, please take time to think of people less fortunate than yourself and see if there’s any way you can help them. A small thing goes a long way and let’s face it: it’s the season of giving.

Happy Holidays!

You hear and read about these kind of stories all the time: people who from one day to another make the decision to go about their life completely different. Some quit their jobs and move to a third world country to do charity work. Others break off a relationship because they’re not happy with where they are and go at it alone. And then there are the ones who go from a life of eating way to much unhealthy food and become fitness and diet fanatics.

Last friday I talked with one of the instructors at my gym. Let’s just say we’ve been aware of each others existence for about 20 years. She’s a couple of years younger than I am, we went to the same school and she was friends with a younger sister of a friend of mine. And she used to be a bit on the plumb side. So I was kind of amazed that when I started at the gym a couple of years ago that she was there as an instructor and she looked everything the part. Last friday she told me that what changed her way of life was the time she came out of the shower, saw her reflection in the mirror and didn’t like what she saw at all. She made the decision then and there to change her life and live healthier and certainly more active (I’ve seen her after 3 hours of teaching aerobics, bodypump and spinning classes and she didn’t look a bit winded) then she had done. I had the same kind of thing when I saw my reflection in the mirror at one time and what started me to look at my eating and exercising habits (the former was poor, the latter almost none-existent) and make changes to that.

But what I quickly realized was that seeing that reflection was just a trigger for the change. You can even call it the final drop. And I think that it just doesn’t apply to only my change as it applies to every life change that everyone ever has. The fact of the matter is this: every person has a point of no return where they say “Enough is enough”. You’ve already been unhappy with the way things were (in hind side when you look back you realize that) and it’s the final straw. Whether that’s with the way you look, your job or your relationship, there comes a point where you realize that you’ve reached the limit and you can’t take it anymore. That you just need to make a change. And that trigger can be anything.

For me and her it was the reflection in the mirror. For others it’s the email from their boss that makes them change jobs. An article you read. Or a book. A documentary you see. Whatever it is, rest assured that it’s the final step in a process that you’ve started some time ago. The process of getting into that big life change without you even realizing it.