“The most powerful alarm clock is purpose.  Build a life worth living and your passion will wake you up before any alarm,” via enlightenthoughts. We are creatures of habit who benefit from structure—so much so we need to be aware of not getting ourselves in a rut or becoming too narrow focused.  Some people say laser focus is necessary and I would agree that in some cases being laser focused and specific is needed—I don’t want a surgeon watching TV while operating.  We need drive to really get us going.  If this year didn’t take us where we want to be or if we find ourselves asking what our purpose is, now is the time to consider the changes we can make moving forward.  The past can’t be changed but we can change the future as I’ve said and that is something we’ll talk about more.  Since we crave routine, we focus on developing those habits that help us become who we want to be.  Is it really motivating to wake up and immediately have to get ready for a job that requires you dress a certain way, eat at designated times, only allows a few weeks off at most (with permission)?  The motivation there is external.  I challenge everyone to find that internal motivation.  The motivation that doesn’t even need to tell us to get going.  It’s the drive to accomplish something, not complete a list of tasks for the day that will never end and we repeat it tomorrow.

We often feel like we are trapped, like we have no way out because we aren’t expressing our true selves, sharing our unique gifts, or communicating our honest thoughts and feelings.  We spend too much time hiding behind the image we’ve created and we can get lost there.  Living truth looks different for everyone.  It’s not something that can be done FOR someone.  We know that feeling when we’re doing something out of obligation or just routine and it’s a matter of feeling like we just need to get through it.  Life is so much more than just getting through.  This is the perfect time to pivot.  Don’t set ourselves up with some lofty goal of changing our lives overnight and suddenly on 1/1/26 we’re a new person.  Look at he amalgamation of all the events of our lives, especially those in the last year and ask where they are leading us to next.  We know where we are, we need to know the next step to get to where we’re going and doing a deep dive let’s us see the little things we still need to shift.  As we ask ourselves those questions, we can also ask if we’re getting up in the morning because we have to or because we get to.  If the answer is because we have to, it’s time to go further and find out what makes us want to get up.  What is the thing that makes us say, “I can’t believe I get to do this!” and actually mean it?

Now is not the time to get down on ourselves for any misses we’ve had up to this point.  We can’t replay that game anyway.  Now is the time to decide who we are and if we are willing to do what it takes to be that person.  It doesn’t matter what it is whether it’s stopping a habit or picking up a new one, if it’s believing in ourselves or learning some humility, stepping up or stepping away.  I want to emphasize when I talked about knowing I needed to take time off and didn’t do it, I KNEW I needed that time off and I paid for it.  Constant fear and worry, a feeling of always being ON, a mind that couldn’t complete a coherent sentence in conversation, who forgot the conversation while having it, who wrote things down and still forgot because there was so much to do and my mind was so crowded it couldn’t take anymore.  And that was the fun time when my mind decided it also needed to replay my greatest hits of every mistake in my life and every potential mistake and loss going forward.  Sometimes we have to forgive the past so it stops holding a veil over our future.  We will never see that future (or be able to live it) if we are constantly filtering it through old events.  We need to understand that WE are the ones holding that veil.  Our passion and true self is always accessible, that person is right there, and they will be present if we stop forcing them to hide behind who we were.  We need to forgive and decide to live how we are meant to because that’s what we’re here for.  Decide to feel that purpose, decide to get out of our own way.  Bring all that power back and share that purpose with the world.