Clean Slates

This is one of my favorite quotes. I love it. I was going to post about the new year and making a new beginning and all that stuff. But then I realized, that I made my new beginning back on September 11th when I started AltShift. At the time, I was somewhat desperate. I felt horrible. I was huge. And I had basically come to terms with the fact that I would be huge forever. Then I started AltShit and signed up for AltShift Activate, and the rest is history so to speak. So for the first time in I don't even know how many years, I'm not looking to start a healthy diet or activity plan this new year. However, that doesn't mean I'm perfect or that I don't have anything to work on. I love new beginnings, new starts, blank sheets, whatever you want to call them and I absolutely love, love, love that New Year's Day is on a Monday. How perfect is that? The thing is, I want to approach the things I wish to change like I did AltShift. I need to get my thinking right before lasting change will occur. So I think that's where I need to focus. But can I do that? I think I can.

You know what. As I was writing that, I realized the futility of what I was writing. I'm not going to change dramatically on January 1st. I can't set things up to work as well as AltShift did. I do want to change things up though and am going to use the 1st as a jumping off point. I must stop spending as much. That I can approach like I did AltShift. I spend mainly for the feelings it evokes. So using the mindfulness that I practice every morning with medication, I should be able to think myself out of the excessive spending. But that I've been working on for months, it's not something really new. The other thing is planning for school. I want to be more prepared and ahead of the game than I have been. Decision fatigue is real and I've experienced it. I know that by having to decide every day what I'm doing every class, I'm not being the best teacher I can be and I'm wearing myself out. When I have to decide every day what I'm doing for every class, by the end of the day I'm exhausted mentally. On the days when I am prepared and have everything ready to go, I not only teach better, but I end the day feeling good about what I did. So, my goals for the new year are to spend less and keep up with my planning. I can do that.

As much as I enjoy clean slates and new beginnings, I think I'm well on my way to achieving my goals.