A good friend of mine texted me a cartoon picture of herself with a big hammer smashing 2017. I could relate! What a crazy year! The political climate, the natural disasters, fires and of course that is on top of all of our own personal struggles and set-backs. A client of mine recently stated that they made New Year’s resolutions for the first time this year. Maybe we are afraid to make resolutions because if we don’t meet them, then we feel defeated. We want to set hopes and intentions but not too high because we don’t want to disappoint ourselves. Better to just put our heads down and keep going without questioning where we are going, what our path may be and if we are really satisfied with our lives.

That works for a while until we get that gnawing feeling that we aren’t living out our potential or fully engaged in living. At that moment we have a choice: do we branch out, try something new, join a gym, a book club, take a class or do we keep our heads down and keep going through the motions? I’d suggest the former, but it does come with some risk. We risk trying and failing, we risk putting time into something we may or may not enjoy and we risk financially investing in a project, class or training that we have no guarantee will pay off. But isn’t that life? We know we don’t have guarantees but we continue to search for them. I promote trying. I promote practice and practicing again until we find what fits for us. Certainly, happiness comes and goes but feeling satisfied with our lives is consistent, when we continue to engage instead of disengage from living. And that means taking healthy risks.

I recently read the book, You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero, http://www.jensincero.com, and so much of what she said resonated with me. We have to be willing to risk to grow, we have to be willing to get uncomfortable to grow and to succeed. Of course, I have days where I’d rather not take a risk. I can be more private professionally by nature and to start a blog has pushed me out of my comfort zone. But, keeping my voice in the game is a personal commitment I’ve made to myself. There will always be critics and naysayers and those who put doubt in your mind for taking a risk. But as Brene Brown, http://www.brenebrown.com, author and researcher states, she’s not interested in hearing from those who are watching on the sidelines. She’d rather hear from those who are in the arena, in the game. So, what commitments can you make to yourself? What will 2018 bring for you?