A new year beginning means I’m getting another chance. I’m not generally one for making New Years resolutions and I stopped when I felt like a failure over those times I didn’t follow through. More excitingly, I find myself constantly re-creating myself as the year goes on. I do however, like to take the time to reflect and learn from the events of the past year, focusing on what worked and what needs to be improved.
I’ve learned to build my life like I design a beautiful room – creating the dream first in my mind and then slowly building the room from beautifully unique elements that I’ve acquired while living.
The question that always comes up at this time of year is: Is what I’m doing making me happy? If the answer is yes, then keep creating because life is giving you what you need to bring that room to completion. If the answer is no, then lets start editing and rethinking what can be improved.
I’ve managed to divide my life into different categories; nine to be exact and in no particular order. Family, Contributions, Hobbies, Leisure, Alone Time, Personal Growth, Work, Relationships, & Friends.
Each of these areas bring me great joy and balance for a well-lived life. As you might imagine, each one of these categories has many sub-categories. Take the category of Family, for instance: I love to cook, do laundry, keep a beautiful home, help with homework, nutrition, shop, read, draw, play games, teach, nurture, love, make love, travel, sing, entertain, laugh and more. I’ve learned I’m filled with different aspects of what makes a “me”.
I think neglecting to feed anyone of these areas for a long period of time is surely a dead-end road to unhappiness.
The plan that works for me is a – Slower Gloria. A Slower GBC Style helps create a slower family, while becoming the essence of Slow Home Living. Which means taking the time to work on all aspects of life, to live it mindfully with great pleasure, for prosperity in every way. Learning how to live at a slower pace in everything we do is, in my opinion, the best positive approach for living since things get done with care while, at the same time, will not compromise our health. Living slow is creating serenity in our lives.
So for the upcoming blogs, I want to slow down and start over. I want to talk about the things that really matter to me and how I manage to keep myself together. I came up with a list of things that make happy: the garden, food, my family and friends, creativity, exploration, movement, business, sharing and my community (near and far). I am making a lot of lists these days, all designed to help me focus on things that are important to me.
I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts with you – both the categories of my life/business, as well as the things that make me the happiest person ever. By knowing who Gloria is, you will know more about GBC Style. One creates the other.
Have you started making lists as well? I’d love to hear from you about what is driving you through 2011. Make me a list!