So here we are, the first week of a brand new year. It’s refreshing, a new year, giving each of us, including you, an opportunity to give yourself a new starting point. We hear a lot about goal setting and vision boards and resolutions and then inevitably somebody like me comes along and tells you that you don’t need all of those things blah blah blah. Here’s the thing, we can all be right because each of us is different and require different inputs to reach success. What works for me certainly may not work for you so who am I to tell you what you need to do? I want to help you be a better version of yourself and the only person that knows how to do that is you. I just want to give you both a boost and some of my knowledge.

You’re probably at least a little interested in this stuff if you’re reading this. Either that or you’re one of the people that read me because you’re concerned about what I may say. :) Back to you; when’s the last time you seriously checked in with yourself, made a serious assessment and at least gave some thought to what something you’d like to improve, change, remove, etc looks like? You need to knock that out post haste (I think I used that right but I’m not entirely sure). It’s going to be a ride, so enjoy it. That’s the only way you’re really going to take it all in and see what you’re all about. I will caution you not to overdo it while also being methodical. In fact, this may best be accomplished with the assistance of a professional over a considerable amount of time. My two cents is that I hope you enjoy the process, it’s definitely been something very meaningful for me.

Let’s be honest, I’m not revealing anything that will throw you into convulsions of desire to drastically change yourself. That comes from you and only you. Those convulsions of desire usually coincide with slamming face first into a wall of fuckits. Did you know fuckits have empowered more people to overcome a challenge than any other motivating factor in human history? Yup, it’s true, a bucket of fuckits can power nearly anything when used properly. (Fuckit meaning: when a person has hit rock bottom, they’ve accepted their truth and are ready to act because they’ve got nothing left to lose. Used in a sentence: FuckIt, I’m ready to (queue cool music)<insert obstacle to overcome>

I trust you know how to do this, to find a way to be honest with yourself, in order to get a solid read on the reality of ‘you’. That’s the difference between success and failure. You know it and I know it. I’ve failed because I wasn’t honest with myself in numerous facets of life. And that’s alright because I’m still a work in progress, as we all are, miles from an endless destination. Insert cliche “it’s about the journey” comment. It really is though; that’s where all of the interesting bits and pieces happen that are sown together into the fabric of your life. This is where the relationship we have with fear, as it correlates to safety, determines whether the fabric of our life fashions a Quilt of Life we’d like hung from the rafters or folded neatly and stowed in the same case Clark keeps his old movies?

I think by now you’ve gotten my point. It’s up to us, but of course, it’s always been up to us. That’s what’s taken me so long to figure out. Not that I relied on others but that I didn’t have the courage to believe in myself. Want to know how powerful self doubt can be? Even after I lost all of the weight, even after I spent countless hours exercising, truly committed to losing weight, I never really thought about being proud of myself. It was never enough because I wasn’t the version of myself I ever considered “good enough”. If you grew up with weight problems this is the reality you may face as well. That’s why I’m so adamant that you’ve got to be proud of yourself so long as you’re moving forward, trying in any way possible to improve yourself. It’s taken me decades to begin to figure this stuff out, trust me, if you try, you’ll get it.

There’s many different ways you can begin to improve yourself but I don’t know what they are or how you can make them better. That’s why the self assessment is so important. I feel like I sound a little mechanical when I describe this process. I do not mean to do that because this process is anything but mechanical. It flows, it shocks and at times it’ll feel like it defies gravity. Welcome to life. I mean that though because once you do this, if you’ll get into the nitty gritty (with or without the Dirt Band), you’ll come out of it feeling like you’ve got a new lease on life.

So, 2023, here we are, ready for you and all your glory. If we’re being honest with you 2023, your four predecessors really crapped the bed so the bar isn’t set too high. Jokes aside, i’ve already seen some bullshit articles spouting negative nonsense for 2023. Miss me with that. In fact, if there’s two life improvement tips I can recommend, I’d give you these two: turn off your notifications and stop watching the damn news. I’m not saying to stop being informed, absolutely not, but news is a for-profit mindfuck designed to keep you hooked on the negative dopamine hit you get from fear. As for the notifications, try it for a few days and I bet you’ll feel better. Our minds need less to process and this is a great way to start.