What's Your Dream?
Later this month, we will be honoring the life of Dr. King. If Dr. King taught us nothing else, he taught us to dream in spite of what we see. His values impress upon us to live life with integrity, have a heart of service before self, and have a spirit of excellence in all that we do. Allow me a moment to break some of these values down and share how when appropriately applied to our lives, we are able to live "Happy, Healthy, Centered, and Whole" in 2023.
Integrity
When we think of integrity, we often think of having integrity with others. Rarely do we realize that we should also be seeking to have integrity with ourselves. This means that we must honor the promises we make to ourselves. You know what I mean. These are promises like, "I'm going to lose weight this year", or "I'm gonna maintain healthy boundaries with people this year." Then we lose our focus, our nerve, or perhaps our motivation. The problem is every time we do this we are saying to ourselves, "I'm not worth honoring the commitment."
I want to share with you an easy fix for this. GET AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER. This trusted person will prove to be highly valuable to the goal-reaching process. You share your goal with this person and they will hold you accountable in the new year until completion. My accountability partner, (everybody needs one), is my good friend of 30+ years, Derrick. He's honest and will lovingly get me back on track when I fall off. If you are reading this and thinking you could use an accountability partner until you've mastered creating integrity in yourself, I encourage you to consider reaching out to me as I would love to help.
Service Over Self
While we are working on ourselves this year, I want to encourage you to make being a blessing to others a priority. Applying the mindset of service to your life helps to keep you grounded and your heart open to then be blessed. It has a way of adding a sense of purpose to your life. It has been my experience that being of service to others makes me feel whole. The challenge with this is balancing keeping your own cup full as Iyanla Vanzant has taught us. She talks about "giving from the overflow and not from your cup." This means doing our work to keep the cup full so we don't become weary in welldoing. The thought motivates me to do what's necessary to continue being. a blessing to those I am called to serve.
Do It With Excellence
What is excellence and how do we get there? I believe excellence must be measured by our own abilities. If we base "excellence" on someone else's standards, we will consistently try to fulfill someone else's vision. Let's be honest. It's pointless to attempt to reach a goal that is not organic to our journey. It's even more senseless to say we are moving towards a goal and not have the heart to do it with excellence. Otherwise, what would be the point?
Having the mindset to move with excellence means being honest with ourselves about what we are truly capable of. We must intuitively know when pushing ourselves is necessary and when to extend patience and grace.
As you approach this year, I encourage you to establish a clear plan. Experts will tell you to set SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) in order to reach your Excellence. To that I would add identifying what has prevented you from reaching the goals in the past, to be equally as important and course correct where necessary. Incorporating tools like visualization is powerful. However, I have a different take on what you may have heard from other wellness professionals. They may tell you to visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. I believe, that because all things start in the mind, you should first visualize yourself completing each goal objective. This will magically build your confidence in your abilities while you tap into the energy of completion. Moreover, because the subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between reality and visualization, you will begin to pull this vision into your reality. Do you see how powerful that is?
Lastly, to achieve excellence this year remember that surrounding yourself with others that will help support your efforts will increase your chances of walking in your excellence. There really is something to be said about the energy you surround yourself with. As you look around your immediate circle, do these individuals motivate you to be better? Do you bring the spirit of excellence when you enter a space? This energy is reciprocal and can truly be mastered once this concept is understood.
So, I will ask you what I often ask my clients. "Who is life encouraging you to be in 2023?" Is it asking you to have integrity with yourself? Is life prompting you to have the heart of service? Is it reminding you to approach the year's goals with a heart of excellence? If you are struggling with these concepts and would like someone to help this year be different from any other, maybe it's time you stop just reading the blogs and reach out so I may help you begin to bring the version of you into focus that has been hard to see.