As we move into the new year, there are a ton of posts showing up about what the goals/dreams/hopes/wishes are for 2014.  This is the first year that I actually have written, actionable goals with tangible results recorded.  I'm feeling big things ahead for the business, which I'm pretty excited about.  The last 16 months have been a bit of a challenge but were also met with record growth in the business, so it's an interesting changing of the calendars for me this time around.

One of the things I'm going to work on this year is me.  I mean, I always try to work to improve myself in a number of ways, but this year I plan to be much more structured about it (noticing a pattern here?).

An exercise I've come across a few times is basically like a persona exercise.  We all have different roles that we fill in life: for example I am a business owner, a daughter, an artist, a friend, a sister, an employee, a teacher, and so on.  For each of these roles, we have the ideal person that we'd like to be and that person has specific characteristics that we can name.  To give you an idea of what I mean, the best or most ideal friend I can be is available, supportive, thoughtful, joyful, and an adventure-maker.  Sometimes it's easier to arrive at what the ideal characteristics are by starting with what you DON'T want to be and then finding the opposite of that.  

Anyway, the point of this whole thing is that I have spent a lot of time thinking about all of the different roles or personas that encompass who I am, which is important, but I haven't thought about the overal 'me'.  So I sat down and came up with this list of characteristics.  I think that if I could be these things, I'd be the best me possible:



So all this is well and good.  I think it's a decent list and almost every word up there has a very specific reason for being there.  But the next step is finding a way to actually move toward becoming this person.  Some of these things I do, some of them make rare appearances, and I have barely caught glimpses of some of the others.  There are a couple of methods that people have suggested for utilizing a list like this to work on becoming the person or ideal example of a role you hope to be:

1 - Name this persona.  Any type of name will do - a silly name, a traditional first name, an adjective, whatever.  When you're in a situation that you find you are not handling the way you'd like to, ask yourself what this persona would do and use it to reset yourself.

2 - Read your list of characteristics once or twice daily.  Read through them with purpose, not skimming the list just to move on to your next 'to do' - I've totally done that and it doesn't help at all. :)

Obviously, I'm not saying you should be someone you aren't.  In my experience, this tool has been helpful for me when I am able to take a step back and see myself in a particular situation and wish that I could handle it a little bit differently.  This can help put be back in line with what my values are.

So there we are.  That's one of the things I'm working on for 2014.  What about you?

To see some examples of recipes that help me stay healthy, check out this post on an easy and tasty leek and beets recipe!

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