December Challenge. Day 10. Friends: how has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year?

This year has marked a big change in my life. Namely my decision to switch from being an employee, to attempting a new venture as an entrepeneur...

I'm only beginning, but already I have felt the support and help from friends and family... I could not single one of them, but all of them, with their entrepeneurial drive and example have shown me the way, given me the courage to try and the support and help I'm going to need... 

I can say that all of them have helped me see a new path for me, a new way to look at life and a new direction for my life...

December Challenge. Day 9: These are a few of my favorite things....

Some every day things that I take pleasure in and make me smile... As the saying goes "the best things in life are free..."

The morning sun coming in through my window... 

That first morning coffee...

Breakfast with TV morning news...

Keeping in touch with family and friends through Facebook... 

Hearing from one of my loved ones...

Listening to music in my car or at home...

Crossing something off my "to-do" list...

Having a beer after running...

Having lunch/Dinner with someone special...

Reading in my special "reading chair"...

Getting in bed with clean and freshly pressed sheets...

December Challenge. Day 8: De cluttering

This is a corner of my room that has been like this for a while now...

The boxes are documents I brought up from the basement for a tax review... I found what I needed and keep it in a briefcase, but failed to bring the boxes down afterwards as I've been meaning to go through recent documents I keep in a cabinet for later filing... The bags are documents and other stuff I kept in my desk at work... 

What I didn't throw away after 6 years I brought home for filing... All have been sitting there for too long, so today I took the time to organize, file and also throw away some stuff I no longer need...

The result may not be impressive, but it feels great to be done with that... There's still a lot of de-cluttering to do, but it's a nice start...

December Challenge. Day 7: Think about the here and now. What matters most to you right now? How are you going to nurture it during 2013?

When I think about what I want in my life... what is important for me in the long run... My daughters, family and friends always top the list, as I guess it's the case with everyone of us...

Then would come health, of course... Love -finding it or making it last- and then, finally, economic well being/affluence/wealth... 

We all want the same things, we may vary the order, but all of them add up to what we expect to render that elusive concept called "happiness"

Concentrating on the here and now, however,  If I must choose the one thing I have in my present thoughts, I have to say it is my new job, my new venture, my new life project.  It is really not an end in itself, but a road to finding a new me, as well as -of course- a new way to make a living...

Succeeding with this project won't necessarily make me happier, but I believe the process of making my vision come a reality will... It will also not affect my relationship with my daughters, family or friends, but in turn it will -hopefully- affect my relationship with myself, which is in fact the ultimate goal...

The result -I hope- will bring about a healthier me, and also help me attain a certain affluence... which will also positively affect my daughters and allow me the luxury of visiting family and friends who live far away... Love, of course, is a different matter...

How to nurture this project in 2013? Well... By putting all my eggs in this one basket! By betting all to this one hand! By giving it my all!

But mostly, by remembering that this is a long race, a marathon...  and as in all marathons, when you start you don't question the fact that you will finish... you just try to figure out how long it will take you to finish... and keep going ´till you do!

December Challenge Day 6: What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2013? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

What I can do without? Not an original list, but here goes:

1. Negative thoughts
2. Complaining
3. Laziness
4. Those excess pounds
5. Clutter
6. Regrets
7. Over thinking
8. Wasting time and energy on things that are not worth it
9. Worrying
10. Self doubt
11. Telling people old corny stories I've already told them

How do I intend to get rid of these things?

1. With positive thoughts
2. By remembering that complaining doesn't resolve anything
3. Will power... and coffee!
4. Exercise, a healthy diet, will power... and more will power...
5. Order!
6. By remembering that you cannot change what has been... but you can change what is to come, and must focus on that!
7. Keeping my thoughts on the here and now... Focusing on the job at hand and on the things that can be done, rather than those that cannot be helped...
8. Choosing the things I devote my attention to...
9. Remembering that worrying is as effective in solving a problem as chewing gum...
10. Self confidence!
11. ok, maybe this is the one my friends and family would rather I focus on... but I don't really know how to solve this one... so I guess everyone will just learn to live with my old corny stories they've heard before...

December Challenge Day 5. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should- recall a moment when you said yes to something but felt you should probably have said no.

I probably should have said no to that second helping, to that third glass of wine, to that "last" Gin Tonic... to that N´th beer...

Today I'm the heaviest I've ever been... but hopefully the heaviest I'll ever be!

I guess one of the things I have to work on this next year is learning to say "No thanks, I'm good!"

December Challenge Day 4: Healing. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2013?

What healed me? Well... Physically it was exercise, although I have to admit that what really helps is combining exercise with a proper diet... That's why I was so fit at the beginning of the year... Sadly Summer was a great time for fun but not for dieting nor for exercising... So I'm in need of some more physical healing at this point... So that would be what I would like "healed" in 2013 on a physical level...

On a more personal/profound level. What I needed most was to change a job were I was no longer happy. Where I was mostly frustrated and where I was going nowhere... This happened in a very sudden and somewhat unexpected way... But it was a most welcome change. What I expect and hope to heal in 2013 is my capacity to only see the positive aspects of things, which I had lost...

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OnSanity: December Positive Reflections, or December challenge