It seems fitting that the first fresh blog post on my new site is one welcoming my newest year on Earth. I have learned a lot about myself this last year, or I guess more appropriately said, I have accepted a lot about myself this past year. It’s because of these things I have learned and accepted that I have a lot of optimism for this next year.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results. I have never felt this to be more true than in this decade of the 2020s. I have set some form of the exact same goals and approached them in the exact same way with the expectation that by the end of the year I will have achieved all that I set out to do, and every single year I find myself burnt out, unmotivated, and struggling to make progress towards any of the goals.

This year, I’m doing things differently!

Since my approach to making things happen hasn’t exactly been working in my favor for the last few years, it’s time to totally shake things up and take a different approach. I will be taking into consideration the limits I finally accepted that I have and changing the way I do things as a whole. It is entirely possible that to you, dear reader, things might not appear all that much different at all, but rest assured I am making some major changes to my approach, mindset, and definition of goals and success.

What I learned about myself this year

Again, these are more so things that I have finally come to accept about myself rather than new things I’ve learned, but acceptance is the final step, right?

1. I’m burnt out (or languishing…something like that) and a month off is not enough time to fix true burnout. It turns out, burnout actually takes 2-5 YEARS to fix. There’s not a quick fix, “take a vacation and you’ll be fine” solution. Beating burnout takes work and time. Lots of time.
2. Focusing on multiple big goals is making me terrible at reaching any of them.
3. I do not have the same kind of energy and ability to hustle as I did 10 years ago, and expecting myself to is self-sabotage that keeps me from reaching my goals rather than helping.
4. I don’t have to do all the things all the time.

This may sound obvious to some of you, and quite frankly, I have probably known these things for quite some time, but only in recent weeks have I come to accept them as fact. Now that I have accepted my “fate” I can take a new, better approach. So here it is.

I am focusing on ONE goal and one goal only, starting today.

Everything else has a very clear back seat to my singular primary goal. I’m opting to start today rather than January 1 simply because I don’t want to feel like I’m just waiting around for a month and a half to tick by when I could be a month and a half into reaching my goal by the time 2023 rolls around. In the words of Jonathon Larson, “no day but today!”

So what’s the goal?

37 lbs by 37

That’s right, my friends. The first big goal I’m focused on is my health and weight loss. I am so tired of feeling too tired to feel like I can give my health my all. I’ve been spread too thin, dealing with a fluctuating scale that comes from a whole mess of things, one of which is admittedly my half-hearted approach to following my plan and actually doing the work, but that stops today. I’m tired of feeling like I’ve let myself down. I’m tired of wondering if my lack of progress in weight loss is the reason I have issues with my energy. I’m tired of not feeling awesome in every single item in my closet. I’m just tired.

So, this is my primary focus for my 36th year of life on this planet and for 2023.

Does this mean I’m totally shirking on my other responsibilities? No, of course not, but instead, I will be using as many of my other commitments as a way to enhance my singular goal.

Homemaking will look the same. Heck, it will probably look better. More meal prepping and focus on what is happening in the kitchen, and more time cleaning and organizing, as that helps my mental health and also keeps me active.

Diva and the Divine will change just a little bit, but in ways that most won’t even notice. Since the primary focus of my day-to-day will be on finally getting my weight loss back in check, the reality is most of my content will focus on that in some way. My priority for Youtube won’t be growth or income goals, but rather simply sharing what I am doing in my life to help me achieve my goals, and if people want to watch, great!

I will also be focusing more of my smaller goals on things that will ultimately help me achieve this big goal in one way or another, or assist in managing burnout.

Ultimately, I am really excited to be buckling down and getting this one task that has been messing with me mentally, physically, and emotionally knocked out completely so it’s done and I can move on to other things. If you decide to hang out with me over this next year, you will get a behind-the-scenes look at how the journey is going and what I’m doing to achieve my goals.

Cheers to 36. It’s going to be life-changing!