Assessments of the New

There are certain times in life that cause us to assess and / or reassess everything around us.  To take a good long hard look at ourselves, our surroundings, and the choices that we may or may not even realize we're making on a daily basis.  Some are drawn to do this at the start of a new year, some find themselves doing so after a crisis, others simply arise one morning with a newly awakened determination to create change in their world.  Nothing is impossible.

The kicker is this... change is scary & uncomfortable at the outset.  It's probably the reason so many of us end up reverting to our previous ways that we sought to change in the first place.  Even if those thoughts, those habits, those daily choices were not ultimately in our best interests, they were what we knew & used & felt a modicum of confidence through, even if their end result created less than positive circumstances. Like a fuzzy old tattered blanket, we became accustomed to the not so stellar end results as well. Changing those thoughts, habits, and daily choices creates not only a level of reaching beyond our comfort zone via the process, it causes new end results that we must learn to embrace too! 

My point is this, without reaching beyond our comfort zones, without striving to better ourselves, without continuing to push past the bounds of our standard actions and reactions, we stagnate.  We quit growing, and evolving, and miss out on many of the most spectacular people and experiences that life has the potential to offer us. I say this because I recently have been striving toward these changes in multiple areas. It's not easy to let go of the old, but the further I immerse myself in the new, I find that it's an unaccustomed feeling of calm, positive, sheer happiness that I'd really like to get used to!  It's a little uncomfortable experiencing all these new feelings and possibilities, but I'm learning to be okay with that aspect. My hope for anyone reading this is that you'll close your eyes, take a deep breath, and take that leap in whatever direction is a new start ... just to try.

~ The Girl in the Little Black Dress