Hi Friend
Welcome to 2024. This first week was a random zig-zag of effort, focus and intention. Last Saturday after writing you, I took all my Christmas decorations down. I’m not sure what prompted it? It could’ve been I decided to watch the Hobbit Trilogy since I had knocked out LOTR and couldn’t just sit around.
I also spent more time with my daughter which is always a humorous-to-hilarious time. I contemplated vision-boarding. I’ve never done it but would like to. I’m still going with a word-of-the-month instead of one for the whole year. The last two years I’ve started off with “Contentment” to keep everything in perspective. This year I’m kicking off with “Determined.”
Some more fun news is that the house in Guthrie was staged for pictures and showing. On less fun news, it appears I’ll lose as much money as I thought I was going to make when I originally started. That hurts. What an education I paid for! 🏠
New Years Eve is possibly my favorite holiday because of the collective restart everyone gives themselves. I love the societal hope that swells around the idea of letting go of the past and reimagining ourselves in the future. We can’t shed our old skin in one night, and despite the jadedness that goes along with trying to change, I’m inspired by people’s desire to grow.
Heck I still want to grow, learn, attempt, experience numerous firsts, become, expand, try, and persist in things and areas I never have before.
DAILY EXPOSURE
Becoming something we’re currently not is a hard business. I’ve got a good friend who is masterful at recognizing an area that needs changed in their life and goes about altering their thinking and behavior to become what’s needed. It’s impressive.
The daily routine is where the magic lives. Being consistent about it, when it hasn’t been habitualized is the work. Sarah and I were in ChatGPT every day this week experimenting with ideas. It requires us to think differently and consider deeply, good questions. Neither of us will be master’s any time soon, but we did add a layer to our understanding.
How can you and I enlarge our exposure to areas of life that will challenge or enable us to grow?
SHAPING ENVIRONMENTS
At Hawks Agency, our mission is to shape environments where everyone gets to contribute their best daily. Since it’s the start of the new year, let’s contemplate the environments that will equip us to advance and mature in meaningful ways:
People – Who we listen to, look to, learn from and spend the majority of our time with will have the biggest impact on who we become. Are you spending time with folks who challenge complacency?
Thoughts – The stories in our head will impact us tremendously. We all have voices – how many and what we decide to consider over and over is the offer. Will you choose fear or faith? Hope ore despair? Possibility or defeat?
View – What we envision transforms us. Both actually and figuratively. Where are you setting your sights and what captures your focus?
Joy – Being miserable sucks. Accessing a stable emotional core, that isn’t altered by external circumstances, is vital. Combine this with peace and we’re in the pole position for every setback or challenge. How frequently do your feelings hijack you?
Instigating Ideas…
1. Give voice and vision to an area you’d like to grow in this year.
2. Combat disappointment and indifference through genuine inspiration.
3. Commit to learn something every week.
You know how I feel about weekly learning. I’m convinced you and I learn a lot every week! Unfortunately, few of us designate a time to reflect and discover what it is we’ve learned.
I’d like to invite you to launch your own weekly instigator. Not for the masses, though you could, but for me. I dare you to write me every week with something you’ve discovered, realized, experienced, overcame or learned. It doesn’t have to be 800 words like mine. It can be a sentence or two. It can be a success or failure. It can be an observation or new awareness. It can be an experience or missed opportunity.
This process of pondering my past week and then jotting down thoughts, revelations, insights and considerations may just be the most important thing I’ve done.
BELIEVE
What we believe about ourselves is the key that unlocks all of our potential. Removing limiting beliefs about myself is one of my primary goals this year. Identifying what those thoughts are is a humbling operation. Supplanting them, even more so. What do you believe about you?
I hope you get caught up in all the momentum of hope! Let this season boost your belief and stir up all your imagination for what could be – who you could be – in this fresh season of life. #BelievingForYourBest