Finding Balance and Happiness in 2016
I feel a little weird posting this because I feel like every other post I see on social media is full of negativity for 2016… there’s even a fake horror film trailer depicting how terrible this year was.
But 2016 has been, without a doubt, my best year ever.
I think it’s true that sometimes you’ve really gotta hit your lowest lows in order to get that kick in the ass you need to go after your goals. I was 110% coming off a years worth of struggle in 2015.
Fresh out of college I was really struggling with the dissonance between who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do and what I thought I was supposed to be doing. I was making all the wrong decisions and never had my own best interests as the first priority.
It wasn’t until things got about as badly as they could that I knew I had to make a change.
I quit my office job and I quit trying to make “getting a real job” work for me when I knew it never would. I stopped taking a medication that I had been on for nearly 8 years… and it was only after I stopped taking it that I realized the devastatingly detrimental effects it had been waging on my mental health. I felt (and still feel) a sense of balance and stability that I hadn’t felt in nearly a decade.
I set out to do, for the first time, exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to balance three part time jobs. I wanted every day to be a little different. I wanted to be busy and make my own hours. I wanted control over how I spent my time. It was not what everyone else was doing but it was exactly right for me.
I started working at SoulCycle in January 2016 and split my time there, nannying and working at my mom’s store.
Starting at Soul was the first step in my best year ever. It was the first choice I had felt sure about in a long time.
I was surrounded everyday by inspiring, positive, health-minded, goal-setting and encouraging humans. I became a part of a community focused on strength and happiness for the individual and as well as the group. It was exactly what I needed.
On my first day at Soul a wise friend explained that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If something’s not working for you and you want to make a change, he said, it’s up to nobody else but YOU… do something about it.
And there’s never going to be a better time than Now.
Setting fitness goals for myself at Soul and watching myself soar past them gave me the confidence in myself to work towards achieving way bigger goals in life.
~Australia-
Just 12 months ago I remember sitting in therapy in a state of pure despair about my life.
What would make you happy? My doctor asked me.
Living the life I want to live. I said. Not the life that I feel like I should be living.
So do it. She said.
The other day while I was eating my dinner during my 30 minute break from work I was enjoying this view:
In 2016 I learned that with determination and hard work you can literally achieve anything you want. Even the biggest of dreams.
In 2016 I learned that at the end of the day, it’s your life… and it doesn’t matter at all who approves of your decisions as long as you do. Just because something is right for everyone else doesn’t mean you need to make it right for you. There’s no better time than now to go after your goals. Because life can change in a second.
In 2016 I learned more than in any other year of my life. But with that came the realization that there is so much more to know, to see, and to do.
In 2016 I found my balance.
Bring on 2017.