2015 The Year Of Daring Greatly

1. The year I turn 50! I can’t believe where the time went – but it did and I’m grateful for all the years gone by.

Reflecting on my life today, I wrote the following words in my journal (without edits):

With no more excuses left for me not to write, I tentatively start to write my ‘Morning Pages’ again. I am aware how much this has helped me in the past and how important it is for my well-being that I re-start this.

I need to be more purposeful in my life as I approach my 50th year. At many levels I still feel like a child – a hopeful, naive child – and yet I also feel jaded and cynical. I am a bundle of contradictions. As much as I try to live my life looking forward, the past intrudes from time to time. And I find myself vulnerable, confused, too open to outside influences. A large part of this is because I don’t make enough time for reflection and I’m not disciplined in following practices that are good for my health and well-being:

1. Excercising regularly

2. Eating healthy

3. Reflecting quietly

4. Being creative – cooking, knitting, doodling

5. Writing my Morning Pages

6. Reading and imbibing good thoughts

There is nothing to stop me from becoming a beautiful, thoughtful woman – a person who exudes confidence and inner strength. The only thing that stops me  is myself – my lethargy, my resistance to healing and growth.I think I spend too much time breaking down and too little time buidling up. While it is good for me to make sure that I protect myself from being used and taken for granted, I must not become bitter and defensive.

• I choose to be happy, peaceful and creative
• I choose to think positively
• I choose to be aware of my behaviour and choices
• I choose to understand my motives
• I choose to be authentic and transparent
• I choose to dare greatly.

 

When Brené Brown wrote her book Daring Greatly, she was inspired by these words:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” – Teddy Roosevelt, 1910

I too am inspired by these words.

 

 

2015 is the year of daring greatly – daring to be ME. As you can see from my unedited writing, there’s so much I want to be – but mostly I want to re-commit to keeping life simple, authentic and holistic. Let me tell you it takes courage to do that. But I’m going to DARE GREATLY to do just that.

What are you commiting yourself to in 2015?