Hello, 2024
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In 2024 I’m not focused on specific goals as I am on mindsets and priorities in the direction of desired outcomes. These are my Top 5 mindsets for 2024.
Prioritize my Course Correction principles — The idea is that I prioritize each of these principles as consistently as possible over the period of a week, a month, six months, etc. the better I am doing in terms of making quantifiable progress in my physical health and overall personal wellness.
Focus on school — As I do well in school and as it hits me that I’m actually doing it — eeek! — new dreams and ideas are emerging organically about what I might want to do in the future. For now I just want to make the post of the process. Apart from getting physically healthy, finishing my degree is where I most want to redirect my personal pain to turn it into something good.
Live present and engaged — In 2024 I want to live fully present mentally and engaged with the world around me, as opposed to dwelling on the past, allowing the bad stuff to ruin the good, or worrying about the future. That’s why my 2024 Word of the Year is Present.
More outdoor time — Ok, so this is more of a specific goal but it’s an important one. My vitamin D therapy took a severe hit over the last several years. The angst and toxic stress during The Awkward Years (which included living in place with harsh snowy winters and a sedentary job), followed by a pandemic, coupled with a lot of freelance writing (aka: lots of sitting indoors), was a perfect storm for chronic sedentarism. The excessive sitting and lack of regular sunlight wreaked havoc on my whole system, physically and mentally. I won’t unpack all that right now other than to say that I hope to reclaim this territory by spending much more time outdoors in 2024.
And The big red bow that ties them all together
Make the most of what I have — I want to adopt a mindset of making the most of what I know and have available to me right now rather than dwelling on what I don’t have or can’t do. This has been a difficult but necessary mental adjustment for the sake of sanity and productivity, and it also perfectly aligns with living present and engaged. So I thought about it: what do I have in front of me that I can make the most of now that will help me build a better future? Turns out… quite a bit. This is my current “inventory” of available resources:
As a student I have free access to a gym, plenty of outdoor space, mental and physical wellness support, safe and quiet spaces for reading and study, and so much more.
At home I have three kettlebells and two dumbells
I have good running shoes
I have a juicer, Instant Pot, and two Vitamix blenders
I have a Bible
I have an iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro
I’m social media savvy
I have access to tons of free online info and resources for pretty much anything
I have WiFi
I can write (gasp!)
I have 10 years of journalism experience
I am fluent in three languages
I have this platform
Uh… what?! As I wrote this list it occurred to me — I’m sitting on a huge pile of gold bricks. I realized how much I actually do have at my disposal for getting healthy, learning and growth, engaging in meaningful work, and building something good for myself. It’s not that I didn’t know I had these things individually but today it hit me how much I do have and how very valuable this gold really is. Perhaps it’s time to cash it in — literally.
