UPDATENew Year, New Assessment

With the flush of the end of the year holidays, and the exuberant entry into another new year now behind us, I’m using a quiet time in my house today and the opportunity it is providing me to reflect and assess where I’m at in my journey.

I didn’t say personal journey because I’m sharing and including you, my loyal readers, in on the trip.

At the turn of the new year most people got excited and thought about making some new year resolutions. ‘Thought about…’ being the operative phrase here. They thought, very briefly, much like how a Chickadee flits about, on how they were going to ‘change’ their life.

Sadly for most people… that flitting thought is as far as they get. I know… I’ve been there.

It goes something like this… when I was a kid my dad had a recurring idea for as long as I remember.

The grand idea?

To buy an old school bus.

Why?

To convert it into a hunting vehicle for us, my uncles, brothers and cousins.

Every year, starting in early fall, when that first hint of hunting season, was on the first cool breeze coming out of the Northwest, he would bring that idea up. And as a little kid… I would fall for it every time, maybe this would be the year. Being a little kid I didn’t know the work that would be involved in such a project.

I just fell in love with the whole idea of it… every time.

Needless to say my dad never did get a bus and we certainly didn’t spend the time together retro-fitting it into the deer camp vehicle I always dreamed it would turn into. Instead we used what we had. The last time I hunted with him… it was him, me and two uncles in a light, lime green, 1980 Ford Ltd.

My reflections today will help me set a plan for 2019. In 2018 we had some family medical issues come up, which in turn as a husband, father and ‘The Emerging Man’, required me to make some life changes with where I worked. My family required better health insurance and we required a little better paycheck. Now, if it was just me changing jobs it wouldn’t have been a huge deal… but… my wife was also going through an upheaval at her job of almost twenty years, and as I prepared to take a new job closer to home that met our needs, she was in the decision process of leaving her longtime job. Now that gets dicey.

There was a bit of a silver lining. I would be starting my new job right at the time of year where I do all of my bird hunting. In order to squeeze as much hunting time as I could, out of the best time of year, I would save my five weeks of vacation all year… two weeks in reserve for emergencies and three weeks for hunting in the fall. It worked real well for the last four years. When my wife decided to leave her job I was able to provide her a cushion of time because as I saved all five weeks of vacation for the year I was able to cash it all out when I accepted my new position and had a months worth of pay sitting in the bank, so my wife could have some time off and not have to take another job, just to have another job right away.

As I reflect on the projects I’m working on currently for the year I have realized I need to plan a schedule better, but once again… I am awaiting to hear on a new job position with a new work schedule. It is with the new company I’m with but still… I have to wait and look at my current time availability and how I’m investing that time as I map out 2019.

As ‘The Emerging Man’ I have been studying, researching and most importantly… APPLYING… those things that others tout as successful habits.

Here are a few for you… and me (remember you’re never done learning)… to help us as we gain ground in 2019.

1. Start small. Pick one thing that needs work. You can’t tackle your whole life at once. I started with my weight a few years ago, and over time was able to learn how to be healthy, what affected me the most, as far as food (like all the donuts I had this weekend…) and now I know how to do my food intake and exercise to be a healthy me.
2. Write it down. Give yourself a realistic goal once a week. Assess if you hit that goal. Be specific with it. Write down why you missed the mark… OR… why you made it and use both pieces of information to move forward. (My donuts are actually helping me to replace some weight I need to gain… not the best way but hey, all calories are good calories right now)
3. Celebrate your private victory… acknowledge your defeats with no excuses… it’s all on you, no one can do it for you.
4. STOP/THINK and ACT with intent… Don’t have a ‘flitting’ thought…  and just know “it takes a small rudder to turn a large ship.” I’ve been on this journey since the fall of 2015, do what you can, learn more, and get moving.

Remember: One good decision leads to another good decision.