My Perfect Year

Instead of waiting a month for the traditional New Year’s Day goals and resolutions, I began my most ambitious plan ever on Black Friday.

Why Black Friday?  Because I work retail (and have for 11 years) and no day sums up the craziness, the exhaustion, and the crying that makes up working in a ‘big box’ store in quite the same way (I kept repeating to myself that line from the old David Allan Coe song ‘It was all…that I could do…to keep from crying/Sometimes it seems so useless to remain’).

So why am I telling you this?  Because it occurred to me that if this is the ‘Put up or shut up’ moment of my life (and it is) then part of my journey and the inspiration I provide should come from my unique experiences.  And because whenever you start seriously going after your dreams, I want you to know you are not alone.

Retail jobs have been with me for a long time — both as a boon and a bane — and for me, for ‘perfect year’ would be a trip from working Black Friday in retail to being thankful for living the life of my dream 365 days later while digging into an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.

Also, I’ve felt like 2014 is the beginning of big, exciting changes in my life, and it seemed wrong to wait until 2015 to get serious about living large.  Though, to be fair, 2014 has already served up a heap O’ change (not bad change, just big change).

So what is ‘my perfect year’?  365 days of yoga, exercise, dancing, keeping the house nice, and writing at least 15 hours a week.  And I know what you’re thinking — it’s impossible.  365 days of doing those things every single day — not gonna happen.  Something’s going to come up, or drag me down.

That’s right — it is impossible.

That’s why I have to do it.

Because I don’t know who I’ll be at the end of that year, but I do know I won’t be the same person I was at the beginning of it.  And I know if I can hang in there and change my life so fundamentally, then just maybe, I can inspire you to realize that you can do that too.

I’ve also been reading the very good new book Standout by Markus Buckingham where it describes my strength roles as Pioneer and Provider.  The slogan for those two coming together is “When I lead the charge, no one gets left behind.”  I want that to be so true.

And for a while I couldn’t even write this post, because I had no way of getting across how big and important and different this is to me.  I’ve made plans and had successes (and lessons 😉 ) before, but THIS is the moment.

So now it’s been three weeks.  Three weeks of long days, exhausting work schedules and GETTING IT DONE.  By the end of this month, I’ll have completed ‘Phase 1’ and have launched this brave new reality during, undeniably, the hardest part of the year for retail workers.  And as the new year approaches, I hope you get inspired too.

I feel great.  I told my sister that retail holidays pretty much suck either way, but at least right now, since I’m hitting my goals every day — I feel like I’m moving forward too.

There’s a lot of great quotes on my and my sister’s Think Bigger board, but this is the one that got me moving —

It’s time to start living the life of my dreams, one 365th at a time.

And in my next post, I’ll tell you why that’s scary as Hell.