5 things to challenge yourself and your significant other in 2015.
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So here I am here to ask a favor of you dear readers? I want you to hold me accountable for my resolutions this year. I want to resolve to be resolute in my resolutions…. I am so proud of that sentence… HA! So let’s look at ways to help each other out in the coming year and if I fail at these, I will be the first to admit it.
“Do” your dreams:
Let’s be real; if you are anything like me, you have a spouse and/or children, a home, in other words responsibilities. However, also have a responsibility to yourself to not only exist but to live. So take that bucket list you have and get with your significant other or best friend and share a bit of what you would like to accomplish, see or do in 2015. Find a financial plan and if you can’t make it happen this year, maybe the next or maybe even ten years from now. Long term planning can be a great signal to someone you care about that you are truly in this adventure of “Life” together.
Breathe:
This costs no money at all. Get out of bed ten minutes before your home starts bustling, or step outside even in the cold, close your eyes and take ten slow deep breaths. Not all of us have the time, or the pricy health club membership, for meditation or yoga. Stepping away, and just allowing for a short moment of clarity can help you find a bit of piece and direction, when often we feel so flustered and aimless.
Exercise:
Again, no fancy gym memberships, no Cross-fit. Just get off your butt and move. Those muscles aren’t there to get you just from your desk, to the water cooler, then back to the desk. If it is within your physical capabilities to move, it is nothing less than a biblical sin not to. I went so far as to sign up for a 5k this year. Will I be able to run it all? NO WAY! But the exhaustion from running in the Shamrock Shuffle will be a lot more meaningful to me than my usual hangover and a lot more of a positive role model for my boy.
Read:
There are some people on this planet who are not readers, my wife included. She has tried, but is just not her thing, but she is working through a great reading plan for the Bible. Anything to keep that part of the brain stimulated, working and challenged.
Smile:
Yep, even if is fake. Not a teeth baring Cheshire Cat smile, but as often reported it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. So just stand in the mirror and find a comfortable smile. This face is your natural and it will surprise you how people react to someone with a small smile, often they change their attitude as well. “Paying it forward” is not about the money spent on someone’s Starbucks tab, it is about the kindness in the act. As cheesy as it sounds, it works.
Can you imagine it? The year the Marty McFly traveled to and blew our minds with, in “Back to the Future Part II” is the year that you made the turn in your destiny as well? How awesome would that story be?