3 things to leave behind in 2012 and 5 things to take forward into 2013

A new year is a time for life changes or at least a time to make plans for life changes. While sometimes our plans, resolutions or even SMART goals fall through...there are three things we should definitely resolve not to take into 2013 and five things we should definitely decide that we should. See my list below.

Top 3 things to leave behind in 2012

1)    Grudges ( nothing weighs you down more than a grudge that you carry with you from year to year – best advice – lose the extra mental weight and instantly the New Year will be lighter and brighter.

2)    Dirty Laundry – figuratively and literally – If you are keeping a dirty secret or engaged in behaviour which you aren’t proud of, leave it behind in 2012. Don’t take 2012’s drama into 2013.

3)    Bad Habits – We keep hearing this one like a broken record because it is true. We can’t break a bad habit over night but we can certainly start to take steps to get rid of bad habits at the beginning of the year.

Top 5 things to take into the New Year

1)    Start the New Year with a smile. Self explanatory but here goes anyway. When you smile, the world smiles back and even if it doesn’t, it takes more muscles to frown than to smile (cliché indeed but true)!

2)    Prayer – It’s simple. Prayer changes things. Keep praying!

3)    SMART Goals – Even though you may not have kept your resolutions or SMART goals last year, it is still useful to go into a New Year knowing what you would like to achieve. As the saying goes ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.’

4)    One word which will be your key word for the year. This word will guide your decisions, motivate you and keep you grounded.  My word for 2013 is ‘Forward.’ Expect to see this word in blogs for 2013.

5)    Good Friends - New friends are silver, old friends are gold…hold on tightly to friends as true ones are hard to find.

Well I hope you find this list useful. Drop me a comment and let me know what other things we should leave behind in 2012 and what other things we should take forward into 2013.

I hope to hear from you. Thanks for reading!

Pretty Smiles (Hanging with Lakisha  and some of Sherise other friends in London 2012)

Remembering 2012 and seriously getting excited about 2013

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I am excited. Personally 2012 was a spectacular year. So many wonderful things happened during the year and I give infinite thanks.

Highlights of my year included celebrating another birth year, getting engaged (see photo below), home ownership, watching my sister graduate, fantastic vacations, teaching the Personal and Professional Development course at the Comprehensive Learning Centre to fabulous students, Presidency of the Optimist Club of Anguilla which was a great learning and growing experience and so much more.

When I asked Nash what the highlights of his year were his answer made me smile. He said they were the simple moments like 'seeing me smile, talking to his brother, waking up each day... this is why I love this man.

Photo credit - Signature7602 Studios

 

But I digress ... if you know me at all, you will know that I also get excited about something, anything big or small at least twice a day. You might hear me say

‘I am so excited to eat lunch’ or I am excited for a friend starting something new in his or her life or I am excited just because my love dropped by the office. I don’t ever want to lose my child like enthusiasm for what most would consider the mundane things in life.

So yes, even though 2012 was so spectacular, I don’t mind saying goodbye to it because I am excited about what lies ahead in 2013. If it is God’s will, I will celebrate my 30^th in 2013 (woo hoo – can we say 30 and fabulousJ. I will also marry the love of my life -I am so excited! Can anyone tell how many times I said excited or some version of this word in this blog?

How about you? What makes you excited? It is the season to be jolly so don’t be a scrooge. Get excited! Get happy. I certainly am. Say Yes to getting excited today.

Let me take this opportunity to say a very WARM THANK YOU to those who have subscribed to or read my blog. I hope this blog has inspired you in some way or at the very least made you chuckle :).  To my readers in North, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and of course Anguilla please do continue to read  and share in 2013 and look out for a new blog coming soon!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year or Season Greetings from 'Say Yes to Today!'

My Grown up Christmas List

It is Christmas eve........How exciting!

We are called to be completely unselfish during Christmas because it is better to give than to receive…hmmmmm yeah (tries to keep serious face). So even though you and I will both be giving gifts this Christmas, I am sure there are some things we want though we may not necessarily need them. If I have a secret Santa out there, I would like a silk head scarf and silk pillowcases and a new phone and camera would be nice.

Ok now let me take off ‘the all about me’ cap and focus on the bigger picture. My desire would be for Anguilla to get out of this economic recession and for persons who are jobless to find jobs. My wish is that persons will no longer be losing their homes, land and other possessions. My hope is that everyone will heed the call to put down their weapons and stop the violence so we can regain the tranquility we were once known for. My prayer is that we will all stop to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas before getting caught up in the hustle and bustle and consumerism of the season.

Let us all just remember to add faith, hope and love to our grown up Christmas list and I am certain that the stars will shine brighter this Christmas season.

What do you hope to get from 'Santa' this year? Let me know!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plant a seed (2012) – Let it grow (2013)

Hi everyone

I had a fantastic vacation and I am back to Anguilla refreshed and rejuvenated. Congratulations to my sister on her graduation. Your future looks bright.

You will remember me talking about my pumpkins sometime last year.  Without any effort from me or my mother other than throwing out some pumpkin seeds our ‘garden’ produced a large number of beautiful pumpkins late last year. During that time I enjoyed pumpkin soup and pie and other pumpkin recipes and even sold a few pumpkins to the supermarket. Not surprisingly though as the dry season approached my pumpkin vine started to wither and almost died.

I am certain that many of us planted seeds during this year. We planted spiritual, emotional, social, educational, financial and even fitness seeds. We would have watched our seeds/goals/resolution start to grow. The questions now are

1)    Did our seeds grow past the initial seedling stage?

2)    Did we remember to water and fertilize our seeds/goals?

3)    Did our seeds/goals grow to full size or come to fruition because of loving care and attention?

4)    Did our seeds/goals wither or die?

As for me, there are many seeds which I planted which have flourished but there are others which barely grew past the seedling stage. Let us take a minute now though to celebrate our successes during the past year regardless of how big or small they may be (loud cheers and applause).

We also must take a moment though to reflect on the things we were unable to achieve this year. They are not failures but rather only delayed success stories. As we prepare to start another year, we should once again think about the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Result oriented, Time based) goals that we would like to achieve and start making plans to make them a reality.

Let your success stories of 2012 energize and fuel your passion. Say yes to a strong closure of 2012 strong and an even stronger start of 2013.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!