There’s nothing better than a fresh start, amen? I love the beginning of the year because it inspires me to think about the coming year and everything I hope to accomplish. New Year’s resolutions, or a firm decision to do or not something, are hardly my strong suit. (I’m still biting my nails and eating all the ice cream.) So I decided to focus on my intentions this year and crafted them in a way that makes them almost impossible to totally fail at. After all, this should be an exciting time for planning and manifesting and hardly a time to get down on yourself for what you might or might not achieve.

So here’s to a more fulfilling, productive, and SUPER FUN 2016.

1. Do more meaningful work (“great work” instead of just “good work”) with people who inspire me.
2. Say “yes” to things that force me outside of my comfort zone.
3. Recommit to my health through more exercise, meditation, and better food choices.
4. Take a class – furniture building, ceramics, graphic design…anything!
5. Read as many books as possible, but start with the ones sitting on my dresser.
6. Commit to blogging a few times a month.
7. Demonstrate gratitude whenever possible through words, letters, gifts, and so on.
8. Invest in my relationships on a deeper level through conversations, challenges, and new experiences.
9. Ask for help when I need it. I spend minutes, hours and sometimes days spinning my wheels on something that could be solved with a quick “hey, can you help me with this?”
10. Drink good wine. Always.

Start it. Lose motivation. Take a break. Start again. Lose confidence in my writing. Redesign! Start again. Feel bad about lack of consistency. Etc.

It’s been over a year since I wrote anything. And there were a thousand reasons why. People don’t care what I have to say. I don’t have anything interesting to say anyway. I should focus on work, not personal things.

But in that year, I learned more life lessons than I did in my previous 27 years combined. I’m so confident in these truths that I have to write them down so I can reference them forever and ever amen.

1. Always create. Write, paint, sing, sculpt, and build no matter what anyone says or doesn’t say about it. It simultaneously forces out your insecurity and confidence making you more self-aware. Creating makes us more creative. Create for you and others will come along.

2. Eat dinner sitting down with people you love (and not in front of the TV). If you have time to cook, even better. If not, just be sure you share the last meal of the day enjoying the food and the company. Eating in front of others makes us vulnerable and brings down the barriers so you can be more open. Always talk with your mouth full.

3. Take care of your body and it will take care of you. Do this in multiple ways:

• Meditate at least once a day. It helps you gain clarity, it relieves anxiety, it gives you sustained energy, opens the creativity floodgates, and helps you sleep through the night. I practice transcendental meditation and recommend it to everyone, but you can also start here with Headspace.
• Eat real food. Fill your plate with organic fruits and vegetables, (sustainably raised) proteins, and healthy fats like avocado and almond butter. Skip everything that’s processed.
• Exercise once a day. Run, lift weights, walk in the woods, bike. Get your heart rate up, break a sweat, and get stronger.
• If you do nothing else, SLEEP.

4. Spend as much time as you can outside. Turn off your phone and head for the mountains. Run, bike, paddle, hike, swim, or just sit and take it in. The more time you spend in nature, the more connected you’ll feel to the rest of the world. John Muir (always) says it best:

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”

5. Practice love. Love is often a feeling, but always an action. You’ve heard that love is a verb and you’ve heard so, so right. It’s a choice. We have to practice loving people – even if we don’t feel it at all – until we start to believe that we do. Love the hell out of the whole world and it will love you back.

Life is full of crazy…distractions, lies disguised as truths, busyness, and often tragedy. In the midst of all the chaos, what keeps you balanced?

More importantly, it got me thinking about what I actually do want for my birthday. Sure, I want things like my health and food on the table and a little extra cash for a fancy drink after work. I’d even take some new throw pillows or some rain gear for my bike. Okay, if we’re going there, I’d also really love some sharp new cutlery and maybe a trip to the spa because let’s be honest; writing this post while slumped over in my desk chair is a really stellar setup for a massage. I digress.

I reached a little deeper though and thought about what truly fills me up until I overflow on my birthday. It’s not the gifts or the parties or the checks from estranged uncles living off the grid in nowhere Montana. It’s the phone calls, texts, cards and messages from friends and family all over the world that get me all worked up. It’s unexpectedly hearing from a friend you went to summer camp with who shares a memory of your first conversation on your Facebook wall and it’s a handwritten letter sent snail-mail from your best friend living halfway across the country.

It’s the feeling of belonging. It’s the feeling of connectedness. It’s the feeling that somewhere back there, you did or said something that had a lasting impression on someone, at least enough that they felt like reaching out to you. That’s what birthdays are all about. And that’s what I want my birthday to be all about.

Go write a letter to your #1 just because. Or send an old friend an unexpected care package. It’ll feel just as good to send it as it does for them to receive it. And you bet your hiney I’ll be checking my mailbox come the end of April.