Q07

How would you like to improve yourself and your life next year? Is there a piece of advice or counsel you received in the past year that could guide you?

I would like to remember the skills I learned this year about taking care of myself. I want to prioritize my mental health, and remember the boundaries I have set for maintaining my physical health. I've been told by many that I am strong, compassionate, brave and intelligent, and now I believe this to be true. If there is anything I can do in the next year to improve myself, it would be to internalize these assessments of my character, and to believe in, and fight for, a better future for myself.

I'd like to work on my relationship with my husband and how we manage arguments. I can do better not to be reactive in response to his frustrations. I'd like to have the kind of communication that I'm proud of to set an example for my son what I healthy relationship looks like.

Don’t tell yourself no, let others do that but don’t stop yourself before even trying. Try. But then also I have these really vivid memories of saying stupid things, trying to just say it and being a fool with no sense, driving people away. So I guess, try with good heart and good preparation. Love you friend.

Now more than ever it will be crucial to take better care of my body and keep it nourished and sustained. I hope to improve in one or more of the areas of nutrition, hydration, movement and sleep.

I would like to find confidence in myself as an individual and a designer outside of the external validation of grades, studio politics, internships, etc. Perhaps the concept of always iterating on myself would be helpful with that. Or maybe getting more grounded in a specific participatory design process would be helpful. Or, I don't know. Just making more for love so I know where my work comes from.

I think I might need a faith community. I think serving in that way would be good for my spirit. No need to rush into things or commitments. I like my physical activities and flexibility of my days.

I initiated the process of living by three words I chose for my 7th decade. to stay intentional about the words and how I can change and grow and live by them: V'ahavta - to love fully Self regulation Magnanimity

Be more focused, more empathy, more compassion and more patience when dealing with others. Too many things don't matter - reading a lot is good but need to be more mindful of how time is spent.

Not too different than Question 6. I would like to get better at work-life balance. Also, I would like to renew (re-kindle) my social life and start making plans with friends again. It's been way too long.

I would like to really up my body-based self-care practices. I'd like to be more consistent about eating and moving enough. Ideally, I will feel like my various health conditions are well managed. The guidance I think I can use is that I need not focus on consistency too soon, I would benefit from focusing on initiating the behaviors and upping their frequency before expecting consistency.

One way I want to improve myself is by trying my best to stop people pleasing, especially because it only gets me into deeper shit later on. For example, by not telling the truth about what I want or need (or telling someone else something that isn't true, just because I think that is what they want to hear), I am not communicating clearly and damaging the trust in that relationship. This will cause more issues down the road, because I will get stuck with something that doesn't make me happy and the person I was trying to please won't understand why I am unhappy when I end up telling the truth or will get hurt when I ultimately snap because I am unable to keep hiding my true feelings for the sake of people pleasing.

As I soak up the glory of my final few weeks of taking my body for granted as a 20-something, I am facing the reality that my habits are not sustainable in the long term. I don’t want my children to be burdened later by my choices today, and so as I turn 30 I want to be kinder to my body and give it the nourishment, movement, and rest it needs.

I would like to have a stronger sense of who even I am, be more able to drop into “my knowing” as Glennon Doyle calls it. To be true to myself without guilt. “If you have to choose between disappointing someone else or disappointing yourself, always choose to disappoint someone else.”

I look forward to 24-25. Become more healthy, move/exercise more, stay useful, and better enjoy family and friends.

I want to be more and more aligned. Sometimes I feel like I ended up in someone else’s life and I want to make sure it’s my own. I want to be in nature more. Great advice…. Slow down.

Learn to wrap my arms around my feelings, particularly those that are challenging.

better overall health> My advice to myself is 'let it go'.

I love you Monica, remember your lightness, live in your light. You are a beautiful vessel of the universe

Let yourself be sweet and savory in the same moment, the same day the same breaths. Allow this of Frank and others

Tonight at Kol Nidre, Rabbi Lauren drew our attention to the line that starts the amidah as more than just the start of the amidah and as a prayer in itself, that our lips may always be in service of HaShem, and that feels like a good direction for the year to come. I'd like to have more healing around my main triggers. I tried to achieve that this past year but struck out with the therapist so I'm not sure what the next step is but I still want more peace than I have. And also I don't want to perpetually problematize myself. I'd like to have a healthy body and have better routines for that -- a regular yoga practice, running, sometimes lifting. And also everyday things like stretching/PT or flossing, etc.

I need to find ways to nourish myself both physically and spiritually. I need to remember to exercise and move. I have too many days where I feel immobilized both physically and spiritually. Today is one. But then again, witnessing genocide from afar and feeling helpless to do much about will do that to you. I also cannot help but thinking about how my own family is involved - specifically my father who has been doing genocide propaganda. I need to listen again to the CBC Ideas episode on Hope. I need to write down those lessons or possibly even purchase the book. One thing that stuck from that lecture: Resist and Persist.

I definitely strive - and desire - to be more focused and less distracted in the coming year. I want to live more slowed down. I am definitely grateful for all that I have learned over the past year, especially working with Kari - complex and complicated and demanding, but also wow so affirming! But now I see that I desire to have greater dominion over the pace and the density of my undertakings, so I can savor and do like Waldorf students do, go deeper with fewer foci. What advice have I received? I think the universe has been showing me over and over to trust myself and go with my heart.

I’d like to be more with my friends and do meaningful projects again. I’ve missed this so much. I guess a piece of advice to myself is that I can also do small things and try out new and different activities with friends.

I would like to get out there and live an active life socially and career wise. I also do not want to overbook myself and burn out. I would like to manage my time more wisely and find ways to make time for my husband who does not usually want to accompany me with social or professional events.

I want to be in the habit of daily writing, pet care, healthy eating, walking and losing weight. I will participate with and listen to my writing circle.

I want to keep trying my best to get on top of everything that needs doing. Organisation and systems help, even if they feel frightening. I need to let myself rest, and give myself time to process and grieve what has happened.

Keep following through with my healthy habits & goals. I am a compassionate soul filled with love & light. I hope to continue to respecting and honoring myself. Believe in yourself. You are no one, you are everyone. You're deserving of joy & happiness.

This is certainly reflecting a podcast I listened to earlier today, but I believe a way that I would like to improve myself and my life next year is to feel better in touch with what I want, and then to live a life in accordance to drawing nearer to those desires. Something that comes to mind is living in community. Maybe also time outside. Advice that I've received? I'm not sure. Maybe that indicates me toward another desire which is for mentorship. I'm on this website right now, taking part in this practice designed to give people another framework with which to interact with the Jewish high holidays, which I think indicates yet another desire. Is it a specific draw to Judaism? or a more general spiritual hunger? I think its a Jewish desire.... so maybe I keep investigating that? This desire in particular feel like perhaps the greatest one with the potential for self-improvement, instead of just life improvement. And in this vein, maybe also building greater consistency around exercise. I think I want a decisive, vivacious year. I don't know if I need as big a swing as moving to Colombia, but after what feels like a down year, a year of lying wait, I want to pounce on something.

I'd like to be a better musician. Earlier this year I bought a very well-regarded bass guitar and also other musical accessories that allow me to practice and compose on my own. I've also jammed with musicians who currently play out and would love to perform again in the coming year. Expressing myself and having fun while doing it would be my mantra here.

Oh I talked about that in the previous question. Be a nicer person and learn more things. Piece of advice- don't sweat the small stuff about your daughter and accept your daughter as she is. Ugh! I was doing so well on it for a while but then she is just non stop denigrating me and putting me down and I suppose she feels I do that too but it's NOT exactly predisposing me to be nice to her when all I feel radiating from her is anger and resentment and hatred. Again maybe she feels this way too.

I don’t know, this seems just silly… I have to improve everything, I feel like! That’s not true, I have an amazing job and amazing friends. But my marriage needs a massive overhaul, or pull the plug, and I need to get back into my body and make it feel good and look good to me and put more energy into my acting career and expand my potential for acting jobs. It’s just very wild not knowing if I’ll be married at this point next year. My home may change my whole life may change. I’m scared to death.

really try not to worry so much about what others think of you - especially your partners children.

I'd like to continue improving my habits. We are a product of our habits. I feel like I am primed to have an amazing decade in my 30's. I am motivated internally, not externally to achieve some very solid and attainable goals. I just need to develop the habits to get me there.

I need to find some degree of balance. No one is doing it for me. And I want to focus on what matters to me and not what other people pile on top of me.

Stop spending so much time on my phone. I actually like a lot of the advice I gave myself last year, and would like to continue that. One thing that sticks out to me in terms of advice or counsel — lean into and follow the things that feel good in my life. Don’t pursue the things that don’t feel good. Prototype things - try things out and see how they feel. They don’t need to be productive. In fact, the aim should not be to be productive. Come back to the artists way. Keep writing. Keep taking myself on artist dates. Keep intentionally making art. Stop hyperfixating and ground myself. No comparing myself to others, just try to live in the present moment and do things that make me feel fulfilled and grounded. Try to catch myself when I'm going down a rabbit hole and stop myself when things don't feel good. Manifest being and feeling confident. Lean into the things that make you feel good. Make things. Be creative. Be with nature. Spend quality time with good people. Experience the world. This is what makes you feel good. And - try to lean into things away from your computer. Try to find hobbies or a volunteer role or work a night a week at a place that really excites you and brings value to your life. Think about food again. What sort of food things are you interested in and passionate about? What exciting things could you get involved in that might be emotionally fulfilling to you? Seek those opportunities out, and go for them. Be active. Run again. Sign up for some fun things and do them. Be gentle and kind and soft with yourself and others. Being slow is good and okay. It did you a world of good this year. Try to keep being slow when possible.

I want to feel good about what I'm eating every day. I would like to have a healthy digestive system, but I have not figured out what I need to eat to achieve that. I need to keep a food and poop diary. (ugh) I want to practice more with my ukelele so I get better at being able to play a song on it. Judy gave me great advice this year: Pay attention to your body signals. Give yourself permission to take time off from problem-solving. If your mind returns to the problem, sing instead. When taking a break, ust keep saying mantra style, I deserve this, I need this, I deserve this. You have every reason to feel so proud of yourself.

I would like to get more organized and procrastinate less. My piece of advice is if you are thinking about doing something because you think that not doing something might hurt you in some way, do it, no matter what you think might happen if you do. You will regret it if you don't, I know, because I did.

I think the most important thing I learned is to not sell my soul to a company for work. Working for myself, recognizing my worth is so crucial. I really did not understand what I bring to the table; I am finally getting it!

I appreciate the way that meeting with my spiritual counselor has reminded me of how my unique life story has made me a deep thinker and feeler, and she reflects how much my optimism and compassion have grown through my hard experiences. One quote that I read recently and then talked about with Beth was "Focus on the donut, not the hole." In my case, this is a reminder of how dense, sweet, and fulfilling my life is, how rich with meaning, even though I didn't get the path that I so wanted and hoped for. It's easy to look at other people's more traditional lives and wish that I could have what they have, but comparison serves no one, least of all me.

More patience. I need to be more patient with significant others in my life -- not just family, but friends, too.

The best advice I got this year was from my beloved graduate professor Marjorie, at the start of my first and long-awaited AAM conference: "IT. DOESN'T. MATTER" she said over and over again. This advice came up over a dinner when Marjorie was looking back on her long career and realizing how much energy she wasted on little things that ultimately...didn't matter. I am always trying to improve my reactions to things outside my control, especially at work, where I've noticed that small things which feel big take up so much space in all parts of my life, to the point where it has affected my happiness and relationships outside of work. Marjorie's advice is improving my life by reminding me that most of these things bothering me right now will likely not matter in a few weeks, let alone in the coming months or years. It guides me to keep things in perspective and helps me decide when to fight, when to let something ride, and when to step away. That advice was specifically geared at my career but is helping my life in all kinds of ways!

Don't become resentful. Try to communicate more when you're first unhappy rather than stewing. I would like to live with less resentment.

An old colleague, a lovely intellectual old man, gentle, advised I start a gratitude journal. i've tried once or twice, but I've never been tried in life like I am being now, challenged by terminal illness and prospects of loss and unutterable heartbreak. I have started one, but it has been intermittent. It has made me realise that although times are the worst I've had, and I know they will get worse, I can still find gratitude in my days through the weeping. Making my partner laugh even though he is unwell from chemotherapy, or sitting in my flat whilst he sleeps knowing I can still lie next to him, for now, in this moment. I think my next year is going to be all about care for my partner, and I'm ready to do anything he ever needs or wants, because I want to make him comfortable or ease his pain in any way I can. I've never been so aware of my love and the prospect of loss. At the same time, my personality has hardened outside of my home and away from my partner. I am angry, enraged, powerless to change the course of my partner's life foremost, and mine secondarily. I have found myself furious, unable to engage with friends, pushing them away whilst being angry that theyre not here with me ever. I have responded to the English tendency to stay away from people who are terminally ill at such a tender age, to be unacceptable. I have no desire to deal with my partner's impending mortality with grace towards anybody who have abandoned us only 3 months in and in fear, loneliness and pain. I would like my ever present acute rage to dissipate into something accepting and unentitled. I've always been entitled, and I don't know what it is I think I deserve from anybody. So, I would like, in time, to simmer down my fury and rage and my powerless to help ease my partner's pain, and be ready to ask for help and not rage if I don't get that help but understand that people are uncomfortable, or selfish or busy - all reasons. I would like to accept what is happening, pray, meditate, lift weights, play music, and make who I am with my partner - tender, caring, attentive, like a biddable dog - this way outside of my partner, towards my friends. Maybe I will get there. I just don't know. I worry this next year will kill any remnants of my nicer personality, given I no longer understand cosmic notions of justice, fairness, decency, and I find other peoples' minor foibles enraging in the face of the mountain my partner and I are facing and are unlikely to ever peak.

I'd like to move to an even more whole foods diet and find some new clothing that I feel really amazing in.

I have not received guidance in the last year. I might be too old for receiving guidance. Not that I am too wise or good for guidance, but that because of my age people seek guidance from me and very rarely offer it to me. On the other hand, as I suspect, perhaps guidance is constantly available, I just do not partake. Again, more exercise. Or any, really. In fact, after I write this, I will go for a quick run.

I would like to exercise more, sleep "early to bed and early to rise", and spend more time with friends/loved ones. Making time for these things seems to be a mystery to most. The advice that comes to mind is that the work is always there: don't be a slave to it.

I'd like to be in even better shape - to the point where teaching classes is just part of my exercise routine and I at least twice a week do something harder/different than I'm usually doing as a teacher.

I think that I basically want to focus on the foundational basics-- getting enough sleep, getting exercise, eating well, taking the meds I've started taking, caring for M, enjoying and appreciating my wonderful little family, connections with others around me. Initially, I wrote here about wanting to make more mental space for myself outside of parenting and work, something along the lines of "more creativity and learning" thought I wasn't sure exactly what that would look like. However, after thinking about it more, I've decided that's an unrealistic expectation to put on myself on top of everything else. I'm getting better sleep, but I'm still not getting enough sleep; I shouldn't need to ALSO expect myself to take on some hobby, learn to code during all that free time I don't have, etc. It's okay to be focused on raising my (our) little one and baseline taking care of myself. It's okay to be okay with the outlets I do currently have-- things like running, yoga, music, podcasts and audiobooks. So, indeed, I want to continue to focus on those foundational basics to improve my life over the coming year.

Go outside, move my body, and use my hands.

I need to focus on physical and mental health. Times are challenging.

Lose weight. Do more quilting. Go on an overseas walking trip to see a new place. The advice I have received is to do things on my own that I want to do.

-Daily practice of the body, first thing, before my mind engages and sweeps away my day. - get support for this

I would like to improve my visual imagination. It's there. I can make it better. It's very cool. My best advice was from itzak, " you do your best work after you tell me it's stupid and you can't do it" I still want to go to Dwayne and Shannon's wedding. And I want to stay off of the shit spiral

I need to be less fearful I need to work on my health, fitness, and my home If not now, when?

I will continue with last year's answer - I want to continue on my path to a healthier me, for my ability to be active in later years, for my children, and for the generations to come. Slow and steady. It'll happen.

I'd like to be a better friend in the coming year. I think in the past I've put 200% effort into friendships and in the past year I've put in about 20% and relied on others to make up the difference. I feel that my friends feel I am now neglecting my friendship duties. While 200% is unreasonable, I think finding a balance would be good for everyone.

I know I keep saying it is tough to find time with my work and school schedule, but I really want to be better about working out. I have an ability to be lazy and not prioritize doing something physical over relaxing and catching up on my shows. I'd like to see me get into a good routine of building/toning muscle rather than just playing racquetball once a week and running maybe twice.

Lose weight and gain strength. Get my finances in order. Advice: Do what you want, don't mask, be yourself, don't feel guilty.

It’s not advice I received this year but in general: to remember that we are all just bozos on the bus. You never know what others are going through and so to always try to be a bit more accepting and patient than perhaps someone on the surface seems to deserve.

Become calmer, less judgemental; listen more, talk less; look for good in everything

I need to build up my physical strength after spending the past year fighting breast cancer. People keep telling me how strong I am. I need to *feel* strong. I want to dive deeper into my creative side, drawing & painting.

Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up. Keep trying. Don't give up.

I’d like to commit to dawn swimming, which means going to bed and having a restful sleep schedule. It makes the day so much better, and my body feels clean and alive. I’d also like to have clarity for myself about the qualities in a man that I will say yes to and date. I am staying true to my intentional solo time through the end of 2024, and I would like to move through my profound disappointment in men and relationships so I can approach them in a new way. I can’t think of any advice. For the most part I have been self-led and providing stability for others this year.

I would like to feel less alone in the world and actually not care as much as I currently do as it is making me sad a lot of the time. I’m hoping my therapy sessions will help me learn to cope with things so that I can just answer the question why do you care with oh, maybe I don’t!

I've taken a lot of steps to make my life better this year. I've begun doing transcendental meditation, working out at the gym 3 times/week, and I've been 100% sober since February. The one thing that feels like it's missing is diet: I've not been able to get my act together with cooking and eating on a regular basis. I'm not sure how I need to switch this up, and haven't found any good advice for it, but I do have a couple of fancy new tools that can help me do it more efficiently. I inherited an air fryer, and made some stuff with it that worked out really well. Would like to experiment with that and my instant pot a bit more. I'm hoping to do it over the winter when I'm hunkered down and it's cold and snowy.

I would like to improve my overall physical health over the next year. I would like to continue listening to my body and also being more active so that I can prevent future injuries from happening. The biggest piece of advice I've received to listen to my body. To truly deeply listen to my body and move at a pace that allows my body to heal when needed and thrive at other times.

I would like to continue to improve my life by continuing to believe in myself and my dreams. I know anything is possible and everything meant for me is on its way to me in the exact time I need it. Realizing the need to control when things happen and scoring and welcoming when things happen for me

Live, enjoy, be awestruck.

There is no counsel per day but I’d like to have really improved my physical activities

Next year, I want to continue to try and build better habits (exercise, sleep, eating, hygiene), study and practice hard, and GET OFF THAT DAMN PHONE!

Be stronger, more independent. Don't take things that other people do and say personally, even if they are about you. Release attachment to how others see me. Use data to improve and not judge myself or others.

More date nights. I love planning trips and vacations and coordinating seeing people dear to us, but when most of our time and energy is spent on kids/work/chores/sleep/repeat, it's easy for time as a couple to be the lowest on the priority list. This is understandable for a season! But not long-term. Now that I am done nursing - forever - my daily rhythm has much more space in it (even if it doesn't always feel that way in the moment). It is also going to be interesting to venture into a year of having a 7yo and a 2yo. When our oldest was 2, COVID happened. So I don't have a good reference for what a "normal" year with a 2-3yo could look like. So navigating 2yo-dom for kind of the first time, in a way, is going to be a fun adventure.

I want to keep improving on living a Jewish life. I also want to become a better person, a better woman, daughter, aunt. Someone who doesn’t waste a single day of this existence to turn one day before our death, and that is, turn every day, teshuva every day. I watched a talk by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, on Tisha B’Av, and I want to remember this to guide me this year, “ However long we live, life is short, too short. Every day matters. Every day in which we do not do some good deed, take some step toward God, is a day wasted - and our days on earth are too few to waste even one.”

I’d like to get a challenging part-time job.

Once again, as I’ve written in the past! I think what I wrote this past year is still (still 🙃) relevant, “ Same as last year: So many ways to improve. I’d like to release my self judgment, feel comfortable saying & doing what is natural for me, know & trust what is natural for me(!), & continue to appreciate life & take challenges as growth opportunities.”

My life is so rich and full. I hope I can retain this sense of gratitude, even if we must weather hard times.

I would like to be free from need of approval/permission from others. I would like to have a clear vision for what I want - and the confidence and self love to go after it. I don't know if I've received this guidance from someone - but there are a number of books/articles/podcasts that have shared guidance: Be ruthless in eliminating what does not get you where you need to go. Spend time with people who you want to be like. Take time to daydream and envision what you want for yourself. Write/journal/meditate.

for the kids: connect then redirect. they have all of the feelings and none of the skills to handle them. be kind. take time for yourself and make sure b get time for himself. get off your phone. get the heck off your phone.

Areas of focus: 1) Not interrupting people when I am in discussions with them. This is particularly true for my partner and other members of my family! 2) Increasing the consistency in my exercise regime. Also, adding more types of exercise. I do quite a bit of walking exercise, but I want to add more intense aerobic efforts (tennis, power walking, hiking), along with more weight work. 3) Initiating more acts of KINDNESS particularly with my partner and family. These should be personal and don’t always have to involve money or gifts. 4) Be more disciplined about working on my projects/activities. Many times I defer my projects to other stuff; I’d like to not do that as often!! 5) Take advantage of spontaneous opportunities with my partner!

I want to be more patient, less judgmental. I want to drive better. (Signed up for AAA class!) I want to be better prepared for classes that I teach! (better lesson plans, better organization) I WANT TO HOST MORE!!! (super simple; just do it! Keep apartment clean!)

I would love to amp my skills with some guitar lessons or voice lessons - but I need to find the right teachers. Maybe the guidance right now is to find the right teachers in my life.

I want to continue to just take things one moment and day at a time instead of fretting about the what-ifs. My advice is to take breaks, go for walks, sit in nature to rebalance myself and reconnect with my soul.

I want to embrace fun. I want to do things I enjoy and I want to help others. And then, I will be a better person who enjoys their life.

Keep grinding. Just keep grinding. Show up, keep saying yes, accept failure is part of life and learn quickly from it.

I'd like to improve my relationship to stillness. It seems I'm constantly moving - shifting my position in a chair, picking at my cuticles, pacing back and forth when I'm especially anxious. Discovering stillness might just ease my anxiety and help me connect to myself in a meaningful way.

I think one of the things I am ready to do is to stop having such a negative or pessimistic attitude. I think I'm ready to start accepting myself more, with all my imperfections and to be pretty darn grateful for all the everyday wonder and beauty in my life.

Fewer injuries.

I plan to start exercising more to hopefully regain some of my physical strength

This year I listened to the audio book version of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul by Stephen Jenkinson. And I find myself attracted to this quote from Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting: "Don't be afraid of death; be afraid of unlived life, you don't have to live forever, you just have to live!" I would like to spend more time this year reading and thinking about how other people have found connection, meaning, and purpose in their fifties and beyond.

Accept what is. Reflect upon your reactions and change them into responses. Always be KIND.

I want to have more self love and more self trust. I think everything that I’ve learned in therapy in the last year will contribute to this.

I want to improve my habits & routine in general.. •Document mine & Rylee's life as/when it happens. •Be more active, fit & healthy. •Live in the moment, be happy & create beautiful, funny, happy, precious memories 🌞❤️

I would like to balance my responsibilities better. I would like to become a better mom by being more active. I would like to have a better work-life balance. I would also like to be a better spouse. The piece of advice that I received is to put yourself first. It's ok to be selfish sometimes, b/c it can help you be a better person overall.

As I said in question six I need to respond less to things I think are hurtful. Also I read a piece of advice I hope to follow. Make two lists. One of all the things that bother me, and one of all the things I have that I am grateful for. It is my goal to do this early in this new year and hope it will help me get a better perspective on my life.

1. Continued fat loss and metabolism balancing for longevity and day to day enjoyment of life. 2. Mental health balance - to not be thinking 24/7 about what actions to take to generate clients.

I would like to get better about saying no, and really prioritizing only the things that really bring me joy. I am doing too much, and it's sometimes exhausting. It makes everything a little less enjoyable, in the end. Rest is divine!

Working through coming to a place of forgiveness, trying to follow Jesus’ example while being patient with the healing process and trusting in the outcome. In my Bible study group at work I had the opportunity to present on the topic of forgiveness. It was a welcome challenge to pour over what the Word has to say about how to forgive as I’ve been struggling with this, and I received advice and encouragement from my colleagues that I’ve held onto since. One gem of advice recently from Malia in my Harlem church’s Bible study was that I can’t force or will myself to forgive, forgiveness is a gift from Christ. It’s what I’m learning and how I’m maturing in leaning on and pressing into His Word that is so valuable. I pray that over the next year I can lay my burdens - the anger, bitterness, and hurt - at Jesus’ feet and find rest.

ready to answer retirement questions

Stay in touch with more friends (seeing people is nice and you enjoy it). Plan your days a bit, so you can do what you really want to, whether that’s academic writing, writing fic, or just reading books instead of doomscrolling. Get really into something and love it completely, for however long that lasts.

I have just started watching season 3 of Industry, which is one of the most stressful shoes on TV. Ah the characters are living their lives at this ridiculous pace, taking cocaine and drinking too much and pushing themselves at work and so on. Anyway, one of the characters says something like: “my cortisol levels! I always feel like there’s an active shooter in the building.” And I was like same gurl. So that feels like a good place to start - remembering that being few things in life are actually of life or death importance, particularly when your job is just about making a rich institution richer.

“Make two trips.” -Larry David

I would like to clear some of the clutter in my house that no longer has an obvious purpose or emotional connection. I read an article on "death de-cluttering" and I can see the usefulness of the philosophy behind it.

I want to fight myself less and love myself more. -Things are, for the most part, gonna work out.

Ask for help when needed. "It is not necessary to complete the task, but neither are you excused from starting it."

More physically fit, active and comfortable in my body. Bring in more creative energy. Be careful how I spend my time and with whom.

Develop and use strategies, routines and resources to harness and thrive with ADHD. Listen more, talk less. Having learned I was not just indecisive, or lazy, or uncaring about or 'in control' outcomes, but neurodivergent - this learning has been eye opening. That along with forgive yourself to move forward. When you know better you do better - and now I know why - know better.

I want to be more in tune with my body. I want to commit to the lifestyle that I discovered makes me the best version of me. That’s eating healthy, exercising, dancing, reading. I want to commit to less screen time and more book time, more creative time. I think it’s a better form of protest. I actually might be able to help in more ways than doomscrolling and reposting. It may pave a way to actually get involved. I loved this piece of advice. The obstacles that are in your path are your path. They are inherently yours to overcome.

"Btselem Elohim" I am made in the image of G-d. But what this means to me is, I am enough. It's enough. I've done enough. I want to whiten my teeth before the wedding but there is no time! Let it g0, btselem elohim. We are hosting friends tonight but we didn't hang up the pictures and our house isn't perfectly moved-in-to, btselem elohim. I didn't get all my work done and tomorrow I will be struggling and I feel myself turning towards self-hatred, btselem elohim.

I had this english assingment which was just us annotaiting past 6th graders "letter to the editors" and saw a really inspiring, eye catching quote, "Stop tring to change unchangable things about yourself." It really made me think about how people are so focused on perfecting themselves for others, when really, we have no say over what we can or cannot look like, or what we can or cannot act like. I mean we kinda do but like u get what I mean lol.

Think it then do it.

Look forward and not back. Put your energy toward what you want to create and not what you are pissed about. Deepen your connections with the people that matter. Don’t spend time on the people that don’t.

I’m working on being more intentional in every aspect of my life: communication with others, food choices, exercising.

I'd like to be more accepting of whatever I go through.

The answer I gave last year still holds true... "When, if not now?" My mom's death made that even clearer. There are a finite number of still good years left, and I'd better use them. Also, don't buy into the divisiveness of the current climate and try to be kind and empathetic towards everyone (well, most at least).

I would like to "Make my art, even if people hate it." What if I spent an entire year following that, what could happen? That's what I want to find out. I would like to have my finance eggs in different baskets. I would like to relentlessly pursue the ideas in my mind, and let them lead to others I don't even know about yet.

"Is there any part of you that is relieved?" A friend asked me this when I lost the chance to do a particular kind of field work for my grad program. I would have to wait another year. And it turns out, that was a gift. I had more time for the work I was doing, and to be with my beautiful, growing kids. She connected me with the wisdom of pruning, of knowing what is essential, of not rushing to meet some self-created calendar that no one can see but me. Time has her own way of getting you where you need to know. *Amazing to note that this is the SECOND TIME that I wrote about this.*

I say this every year, but I just need to keep things moving forward, not let myself get paralyzed by indecisiveness. Putting things into the calendar has been my best strategy so far, at least at work.

Talk less, listen more, but without making myself small.

If you throw enough shit at the wall, something has to stick. If you have a goal and you feel lost, you only become truly lost when you stray and settle for things you didn't want. I would like to continue to do tai qi, I would like to commit to daily meditation practice, I would like to take greater control of my diet, I would like to start a garden of my own, I would like to write songs that are true.

Continue to remind myself what has always been true: less talk, more action.

I’ve done better saying no this year, one of my goals from last year. It’s something I hope to continue working on but for this year, continuing to give myself grace is a big goal. The car accident was dumb and a big lapse in judgement. At the same time, I know these things happen and I know that I continue to have such high expectations of myself. Reading the Happiness Trap and finally finishing it this year was good. I know that so much of my happiness now is dependent on me, My coping practices, embracing gratitude practices, and again, forgiving myself when I fall short of my goals. Ariel at Rosh Hashanah said that the people we love the most are also the people that make us the most mad. This really rang true with me and I hope I continue to be close to Maya and have a great life together with her.

I'm focused on my ankles: little, unassuming hinges that, it turns out, need to be well-lubricated for things to unfold seamlessly. All things. Not sure what I'm talking about? Good! Enjoy!

The best pieces of advice this year were from a neighbor and a song. The neighbor explained that children are dogs when they are small. They want to please and play. Then they become teens who are cats. They could take or leave parental attention. Then when they grow up.. eventually they become cats again. I just have to remember that teenagers are not forever. The second piece of advice from a song I love is “Just keep truckin on.”. It seems all the wisdom of the world can be found in Gratefui Dead lyrics. I will just keep truckin on with my teens.

You would like to improve by getting off of the feeling of unstuck. Your life by finding a way to work remote or at anytime. A way to utilize your skills for the betternent of the world. Advice or guidance that you have received is giving a blank. Youve been saying it's hard to see the label when you're inside the jar.

Oh my God, so many things! I need to learn to be more professional at work; luckily I don't need to come up with a plan for doing it, as the powers that be seem to be trying to nudge me in that direction. I need to learn to lead services and actually lead services, which maybe won't improve my life, but will benefit the community. And I would like to get the bathroom done, by this time next year. Easy peasy.

A friend read me my birth chart and explained to me the connections between my star sign and ascendant. One big point was that I need to be surrounded by others. I believe that I‘m meant to get to know people and connect them. I’m made to find loving relationships and create them. He advised me not to get distracted by jealousy and to focus on my strength in social relationships. I want to grow, get visible for myself, understand my character and my purpose.

Keep moving. Be strong enough to walk a distance without trekking poles.

Being okay with being on my own can help me be happy until I find that LTR. I have been told to look closer at my need to make others happy over my own needs...

I would like to continue taking steps in my journey towards a version of myself that is truer to me. Palestine has changed everything for me and one of the best pieces of advice I’ve received when sitting with the despair of the horror imposed by Israel is that the opposite of despair is not hope, it’s action…

Becoming an RVP in the next year: I am still afraid of the work involved, afraid that I am not really willing to do what it takes. And yet, part of me believes that I don't have to do the level I think I need to do to get it done. The right mindset, the right people...I am deep in study for my 65, test in 9 days. My plan is to start recruiting like I am studying once I am done (or will I get my 26 first?). I can get it done, just need to make the time. Talk to LOTs of people. Weight loss: I have the tools -WW, I have everything I need to succeed there EXCEPT the decision made. I have done in the past, why not now? It feels overwhelmong - to make the food, prep, etc...

Stay close to God and the present (they are almost the same). Be grateful, you have come so far.

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. From those centuries we human beings bring with us The simple solutions and songs, The river bridges and star charts and song harmonies All in service to a simple idea: That we can make a house called tomorrow. What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day, Is ourselves. And that’s all we need To start. That’s everything we require to keep going. Look back only for as long as you must, Then go forward into the history you will make. Be good, then better. Write books. Cure disease. Make us proud. Make yourself proud. And those who came before you? When you hear thunder, Hear it as their applause.

I would like to cut back or completely eliminate drinking from my life. I really enjoy the act, but I am finding that more and more it does not fit into my life and I don't like who I am or what I do when I drink. I have already started, but it's easy to slip back into old habits. I'm trying really hard not to, though.

For myself, regular exercise, journeling, monitoring eating habits and alcohol, blood pressure and weight and good sleep hygiene. For my life, DECLUTTER and up to the date calendar plans and having fun with my world of friends, relatives and children. Find activities that bring me joy and stop activities that do not bring me joy.

Procrastinate less. Prioritize better and more often. Start with the end in mind.

Stay focused - trust the process and keep going - if something doesn’t work, don’t give up - just find a new way to go about it Everything will happen as it’s meant to and you will be ok

Honestly I'm just going to put absolutely 0 pressure on myself next year. Be easy, breezy, beautiful, etc. This year has been so hard and I've been through so many traumatic events and my life needs a reset. So no goals that'll por pressure on me. I guess maybe be more introspective and kind to myself

I would like to be present. Whether its as a father, husband, teacher, or any role I have. That also means being able to put down my phone and not getting sucked in.

After having my fourth stroke, I need a major commitment to my health, especially regular exercise. The physical therapist said 30 minutes of brisk walking 5 times a week should be my goal. Mary and I are going to check out the various gyms. This needs to be a priority - hopefully I can find a way to enjoy it. I need to learn more about nutrition and start eating better and cooking more Whole Foods. And I’d like Everything in my home to have a place.

Keep away from carbs Don’t abandon mindfulness and exercise

The greatest weight you can lose is the weight of other people's opinion of you

Nardwuar told the crowd to get all the information. Who, what, when, where, why. Of course my therapist continuously says to appreciate the journey, that is what matters. Many people, my advisor, my parents, have told me to just do it. However, my grandmother has continuously said to help people help themselves. I can bring more intention to how I spend my day to day actions, how I move through space, meaning not going on my phone and interacting fully with the world around me. I would like to improve my life by making lists about my needs and desires. This happens through feeling my interconnectedness with, well, everything. Help myself, help myself. Through it all!

Answer every invitation from my it's with YES and PLAY MORE. When they want to show me something cool for the hundredth time, all me to play cards or build, ask if I can play music louder for their show. Always yes.

To be better with money. I have given a lot but also wasted a lot. TAKE MORE BREAKS!!!!

Calm down on revealing too much information at once when introducing a concept, topic or project to people. It spooks people and sometimes confuses them.

Get better control of my physical and mental health so that I can find more time for activities I enjoy and that enrich my life

Stay strong! Take care of YOURSELF! Stay brave! Workout! Eat healthy. Take naps and breaks. Go to the beach. Go to the mountains. SING! YOU GOT THIS!

I would like to love myself, and learn how to take care of myself. I would like to live a life where I put myself - my physical and mental health first - before worrying about anything else. The piece of advice I received is that things take time, and it is ok, and that rushing towards a goal does not guarantee you will reach it.

Time is precious. So I'd like to plan for time off together with Donna. We could take a few trips just for us. Maybe plan a few for this year.

Again, it’s all about being better and using my education and showing my daughter people’s evil will toward you can be overcome.

I just read these 2 quotes and I found them quite inspiring: "Society becomes great when old men plant trees in whose shade they will never grow old in." - Greek proverb "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." Wayne Gretzky This to me is quite clear: you make your path where you put it. So start moving in such direction starting now, and it will benefit you and those around you.

I would like to be less consumed by consuming. I would also like to not be as concerned about what peple think of me.

I think what I've really thought about in the past year is that kindness has never failed to serve me well. This year I think I've leaned into living fully into who I am, with integrity and love. And I've had moments where I made assumptions about what people were feeling or their intentions, and as a result have gossiped or said unkind things. It has never helped. When I've returned to connection - even and especially in conflict - and working toward mutual respect, understanding, and repair, I've ended up in a much better place. I've felt at home in who I am then and stronger in my relationships, and usually have made better progress toward a resolution. I've also recognized that when I'm in that place of contempt, I'm often wrong about something (or all of it).

You're not the main character. You may feel like one. You aren't. This isn't to make your hopes go down. This is the quote that ACTUALLY makes you fit in.

I would like to stay focused, stay aligned, stay true to myself and my beliefs. I want to start feeling healthier again, and this is in my hands to do. Outside influences only help so much, I must make the change myself to move forward.

I know that I need to give more attention to Peter. He has taken a back seat with what’s happening in Israel and with Dan.

More quiet time Less to do lists More grace Slowing down Less buzzing Tuning into my own body Tuning into my own wisdom

I want to be kinder to my family and siblings. Elimor Ryzman’s speech about shalom beiss. And how ephraim and menashe were the first brothers to not fight, and that is why we say their names in the Friday night Bracha.

Be a leader!

I need to be more consistent and dedicated to getting more things done.

I hope to resolve the Graves disease in my system through acupuncture, homeopathy, eating well and time. Through intimacy with what is I hope to be more present to what is arising in my body/nervous system.

This is always an easy question to answer, because I am very tapped in to how I want to change. The advice I heard in shul on Rosh Hashonah is to wear or do something every day to tap back in to what I learned and set as intentions during the high holidays. I am not someone who wants to wear something every day, but I do commit to checking in weekly with my partner (and myself) to ground back in to those things and remind myself of what they are.

Yes. To go back to improving my skill set and adding to it. To continue to try and find balance (although that's not the right word) in my life. But to look for balance between loving and striving in my work place, but also doing the things I love outside of my work place. Slow down, smell the roses, drink the champagne.

Yes! Grateful for my coach -- who breaks things down into bite sized pieces. So for me, to learn to break tasks down, or to ask for help to break tasks down.

I’m already on the path of self-improvement. I plan to keep up with therapy, be more consistent with the gym, and explore different forms of dance. It’s always something that’s been at the back of my head. Right now, I’m in pole dance. I’m enjoying myself thoroughly. I want to continue to explore all the sides of me.

I need to lose weight and stay fit. I am 60 in 2025.

I would like to lose weight and live in a normal, clean, uncluttered home— the home of a mentally well person. My therapist told me to try to commit to 15 minutes of cleaning a day and more on the weekends. I continue to lose weight on Weight Watchers. The audio coaching on the app is very helpful. But the mess in my home— where to start?! It’s so much, like shoveling sand from a beach with a teaspoon.

I still like "Let go, let go." More fun and play, less seriousness. More lightness, less heaviness. More love, less pain. More courage, less fear. Okay, I would like to lose 20 pounds : ) But the best counsel is, "Love yourself. More than anyone else."

I would like to keep treating myself well and loving my life. This involves working out and not being in constant pain, and taking care of my mental health and staying involved with my communities. I want to start teaching English abroad- maybe! Or at least have plans to start doing so. Definitely to finish the online class and have a next step. Advice I’ve received in the past year? My therapist has been great but mostly just my therapy journal reminding me that things are okay and that I’m allowed to love myself.

I want to improve myself by keeping the improvement to one aspect of my physical health that I achieved this year. My weight loss, even if a health problem instigated it, is an achievement I need to maintain. I want to do something physical that is an artistic hobby. I can't travel, and the transportation that I had last year was a person who I have lost close contact with, so it has to be in my home. Some ideas I need to explore include: writing (I have a degree in this, I should not be finding it so difficult, but an inability has dragged on for years since I graduated with my writing degree. Got to be a mental block rather than physical.) , painting with actual paints (this has some obstacles physically), a hobby like counted-cross stitch or embroidery (that's a slight learning curve), coloring books (nothing wrong with that), and I even think about indoor gardening, despite my cat and my small apartment and the lack of light. I am disabled and 58 years old. I am exercising more, I need to keep that up. I need to care for my cat. I am taking more time to bond emotionally with my cat, I was neglecting her and she is aging. I am aging. Being creative is a source of peace. I can't think of any source of advice concerning this. I am basically a self-starting kind of person, I can't rely on others to have the same interests as I do. I think I will be able to afford things if I am more patient. I have to exercise patience because I can't just jump into things for financial reasons.

learn japanese and attend contemporary dance classes. dance to express my emotions. the advice was to have the courage to be happy and go and fight for your happiness

Kibud Av v'Em. Let's work on making my parents feel respected as well as loved, like I give them the kavod they deserve as my parents. Being a "good kid" isn't the same thing.

I am very much still working on getting anxiety brain to be less in control of my life so that I can live with more calm, more self-love, more confidence, and more control. My therapist and I so frequently discuss awareness of my thought patterns as the first step in being able to interrupt them, so that feels like an important place to focus attention. I want to work on slowing down when my mind says to hurry so that I can take the time to notice my mental and physical responses to the world around me.

I speak with a therapist, and we are working on trying to be more comfortable with doing my best even if I don’t achieve the results that I want. I have also worked on trying to prioritize things that are important to me and to understand that I can’t be the best at absolutely everything. I also hope I can stop comparing myself so much to other people and to focus on my own journey and doing my best, because other people’s bests are different than mine and that’s ok. I also hope I can be less self conscious with money in my bank account because I am doing great.

I'd like to be a better rock climber. I enjoy the sport and it's safer than whitewater rafting. I'd like to be competent at maintaining my motorcycle and making basic repairs like changing the tires, changing the oil, and basic electrical work. My wife would like me to be better organized and to follow through on the things I say I will do.

I would like to be less attached to my phone. I think it’s become a very present part of my day in 2024 and potentially unhealthy. Speaking with Robert and discussing mindfulness meditation was great advice and I would like to get started on it.

This year I would like to improve my ability to let go of worry and anger about things that are out of my control. In the past year I learned that my anxiety and anger afe connected to how my brain functions. I need to increase self-acceptance and focus on that which I can control.

Turn towards. Always and forever. I hope I can turn towards the people I love and care about, even acquaintances and coworkers. When someone bids for my attention I hope I can be present, open, and curious. I’m sick of being scared all the time. I want people, especially people I love to know the real me. Soft, scared, battered, and hopefully thoughtful, caring, and kind.

Remember that I have glimmers and not just triggers. Make better use of them.

i'm ok. i'm doing my best and it's so so so very enough.

I would like to make space for joy for myself and myself as a partner to my husband. We have only gone on trips over the past few years as support for our families - in the hospital, in the nursing home, in the graveyard. It's time for us to take a real vacation together, and without familial obligations. We deserve it, but also, we need to bring joy into our lives, which have lately just been reactions to crises and trauma.

I think I ended question 6 with the answer: be more fully and boldly myself. Give the world everything I have to offer and bring my unique and weird perspective to my world and my life. There’s so much to unpack here, but there’s only one thing holding me back: fear. Fear of what others think. Fear of being able to keep up. Fear of feeling worthless. Fear of not being accepted. Fear of....whatever it is that is on the other side of courage. The one thing that keeps coming back as required to do this: Make friends with your fear. Fear is showing you something. Fear is protecting you from something. Fear loves you and wants you to be safe and cared for. But fear also is driven by the unknown. When you don’t know the outcome, fear steps in and says “don’t try - it’s not safe.” Because fear only knows experience. What happened last time? Or maybe not even what happened, but what your anxiety imagined might happen in the worst case scenario. But fear does not know what’s on the other side of trying. Work with your fear. Make it your friend. Listen to its cautions. And teach it a new way of thinking. Try.

I want to continue to grow stronger and gain confidence. It feels like I do good for a while, and then I backpedal some. Going through life changes in the past several months has put a strain on some friendships, and that has really been a sucker punch to the gut in terms of my view of my self-worth. Reminders that I am easy to give up on or walk away from are terribly painful. I thought I’d moved past all of that, but it’s very clear to me in recent weeks that I have not. The stress of losing friendships and being reminded that sometimes friendships are not what you believed them to be is difficult and bitter to swallow. I have been told repeatedly that I must do what is best for me, for my heart, for my life. And if that involves cutting some ties, then so be it. But gosh, that really really hurts. I like to hope that I can maintain my dignity and confidence, hold my head high and power through this, and that just maybe I will come out on the other side of this with friendships still intact. But all of this means that I MUST stay strong.

To do the long avoided sleep study to determine if sleep apnea is the cause of my exhaustion. Having more energy would make a significant improvement in my life.

I want to remember that I have friends, who may not agree with me but love and accept me. I need to be willing to reach out to them for support.

Learn learn learn. Treat self with kindness and respect so I am not out of spoons at the end of the day. From Matthew - only pick up a mask when I need to protect self, not to make others more comfortable.

Happiness is by choice, not by chance.

I would just like to be on time to school. I've been late 8 times so far and we've only been in school a drop over a month, so this is not very impressive. I thought I'd start again after Rosh Hashana. I was late that first day back. I can try again after Yom Kippur.

I need to spend some time with myself and really work out what's important to me. This ties in with the personal mission statement that I mentioned before. There have been times this year and even whole weeks and months where I let other people or circumstances shape how I feel. Rather, I should have an unshakeable confidence in my beliefs. I have even let insecurities about my height creep in, which is something that I thought was long since banished. It shows that I have work to do still with building my confidence and sense of self. 'Stay aligned with your own morals, values and energy and let people meet you there' - I like this line of thought.

If it brings you joy, go for it! This past year, I've become obsessed with the k-pop group Stray Kids. Their music brings me so much joy. It makes me happy. I could pontificate for hours about their music, how talented they are, and how they are just overall good people, but I won't. What I will say is that I am unapologetic with my love of Stray Kids. I will listen to them, buy their music, and enjoy them as a hobby because it brings me joy. That's what I'm doing for the next year at least!

More routines and rituals, like “exercise every day at 11am”. More comfort and authority and autonomy in my work, both as a chief of staff and a writer. Actually I loved what my Pilates teacher read off her teabag: “nature never hurries, yet everything gets done.”

As I say every year, I'd like to let go of anger and hurt and resentment toward loved ones. I don't expect to succeed.

Just to enjoy your life, you are living your life every moment don't wait to live it. Whatever it is you are doing enjoy do it, don't worry about what you're not doing because life is passing by as you speak and think about other things.

I want to return to more structure and discipline on how I spend my mornings. I want to wake up early, go to the gym, and feel ready to start the day. This year was very challenging to feel motivated to get up and I felt that lag throughout the entire day.

My mom lived bravely and joyfully in her 80s. She attached brightly colored satin ribbons to her house keys, to identify them. She adored her grandkids and kept secrets with each of them. She marked each day on her wall calendar with a big, triumphant check mark. She said, “I accept the limits of old age.”

I want to get back into therapy. I want to reestablish (and stick with) a movement routine. I want to be more present with whatever it is I’m doing. I want to read more nonfiction, listen to more podcasts, listen to more music. More of the things that bring me JOY: friends, shows, music, nature, novels.

I've been reminded of the need for patience in a big life transition like this, and that the transition will continue to unfold and bring up new opportunities and challenges. I hope to continue to embody this as I build this new chapter of life and community in LA.

I hope to give myself more self-love and to take things a bit more slowly on the larger picture of things. At the moment I am giving myself a lot of pressure to aclimatize to a very new environment, and that is giving me a lot of anxiety. I'm realizing that the anxiety only comes from within, and it's how I see the world, not how the world sees me.

Emotions are prisms. They are gel lights. They are not ME. Choice points! Learned about choice points on Wednesday and it's perfect. Every time you hit a choice point, you have the opportunity to move either away from or toward the way you want to be. Your helpers to get you "unhooked" and moving towards the new thing are your values, long-term motivations, becoming the person you want to be. I think that finding my very deep whys, like values and hopes, might help me (for a while) with motivation. THANK EVERYTHING. I'm ready to recultivate a relationship with motivation. I'm ready to rediscover my competence, my I-can-icence, my self-trust.

Same. Relax. It all works out. Don’t be so reactive. Connect to higher self

I want to do what I love and love what I do. I found a piece of paper among my Mother's papers. It was written in her own handwriting and either she wrote it or she thought enough about the words that she wrote it down. "We are like candles in the breath of God". After reading this, I know there is a certain fragility to our lives. We could be "snuffed out" in any given moment. All I know is that I want my life to love. To be grateful. And to love.

Be grateful. If you are always grateful, you will be a happy person. And never be afraid to be yourself, the people who are right for you, will stay, the people who aren't won't, not everybody needs to be your friend. Find the people who truly make you happy and stick to them.

Sometimes you need to accept the reality of something before you are able to figure out the "why." I would like to be more comfortable navigating the ups and downs of life, and realize there will never be a moment when everything is "perfect." Also -- to be more in the moment. Nothing lasts forever. The only constant is change. Appreciate the moments that you have, because they will end. That's the beauty of life. Right?

No matter what, I seem to still need to keep moving more than I am. And finally have money for disability. To be able to get in warm water to move with less pain. To hire a personal chef and someone to clean my house. Don't wait. Don't obsess. Ha!

My friend proposed the idea that if someone doesn’t want you in their life to let them go. As this person is a family member it has been very hard for me to do, but my health is suffering from this conflict. I have started the process of respectfully letting them go while still being available in the future for more of a relationship if they want it. It is a slow process and I am not always successful, so I will continue to work on it and try to be patient with myself when I don’t succeed.

I want to be more organized and do more art. Just do it is a piece of advice that will help.

This one, I am so unsure of. I think I still need to take the answer that I gave last year and try again: Remember you need to take care of yourself before you can care for others. Don't mistake real self care for the artificial self care that is often pushed out as "self care". Remember it's not selfish to fulfill your own basic needs

when my dad was in the rehab hospital they asked him what his goal was for being there, and he said, "to be able to do a future that I enjoy." So I think that's what I'm going to let guide me.

I want more financial stability, literacy, and agency.

The remodeling is more than half finished. It has been taking over a year, but I am making significant progress. I also just decised I want to learn oil painting becuse I love the texture of that medium. I have been an artist using oil pastels which give a bold color, but I am ready to grow in a new direction with my art. Best advice I can give myself is be patient.

I know how to care for myself, I just don’t always do it. There’s physical care - washing my face, exercise, eating food that feels good in my body, etc. there’s emotional care - connection with people I love, creative time, meditation, journaling, etc. My hope is that I can find more balance with it all. I’m not saying do all these things each day, but maybe more of them? Balance life admin with joy, find ways to manage my anxiety other than cleaning the counters.

I want to break away from my almost cloistered routine. If I can overcome my hesitation/fears of being with other people, I know I would be happier.

To be more of service to people in my life, to not be as narcissistic. More anti-advice: that I am too self focused.

I need to continue to be active physically, but not too much. And I need to continue to rest in between days of busy-ness. Continue with yoga, learn to ride that bicycle, do strength training.

I want to be more protective of my time and energy, and stop expending my spoons and mental health into things that are secondary or even bad for me.

Maybe it would be better for me to quit trying to improve myself all the time. Helen, hearing this question, points out the pleasures in-between improvements, because I she hears enough of my zeal for achievement, my improvement-oriented journaling practice, my goals. Some people are really into self improvement! Whole movements, industries, lives dedicate enormous energy and attention to it. But this is maybe a time for deepening my self-compassion and trusting that I could go a whole year without actually getting better at stuff and still be valuable as a human being. Self-compassion and acceptance are where I need the most improvement, but these are not areas that benefit from goal-centered thinking. I want to recognize how great I am and by extension, how great are the people around me! They will speak of San Francisco in the 2020s the way they speak of it in the 1900s, as a place buzzing with the spirit of innovation and community recovery.

I would like to cut the snark out and focus on just being more genuine.

Remember and act on this: Every day is a new life to a wise man. And. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I want to learn how to stop my energy leaks, but otherwise pretty much the same as last year: self-confidence, relationship with Spirit, being OK with myself no matter what happens with others. Knowing that how I move through the world is my own business. More art, more poetry, more writing, more love. A piece of good advice I read was that it is impossible to love the life you have if you are always trying to rewrite the past... that is, to imagine what life could have been like "if only..." (parents had been more supportive, hadn't taken such and such job, or lost that money doing whatever...) I am learning to drop the stories and just be here loving my life and all the people in it.

I'm not sure I've got the balance quite right at the moment. My morning routines take quite a while so I'm often not ready to work until about 11:00. Is that fine? I guess it's OK if I keep up with my work. Maybe I've said yes to too many things at the moment, which is why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions. Is it too much to do the following each weekday morning: workout or yoga, followed by 20 minutes on the shakti mat listening to a 10-15-minute meditation; then a 20-minute walk while listening to my audiobook or podcast; a shower while listening to another meditation; breakfast at the table while reading. It's a really nice way to start the day and I'm feeling pretty good on the whole. But it does take a while. Then at bedtime I often don't get to bed until after 23:30, sometimes closer to or after midnight. Before waking at 06:45. I'm not getting enough sleep. If I was less tired would I be able to get through my morning routines a bit faster? Should I remove the shakti mat from my morning routine and only do it occasionally? I'm pretty good at keeping habits like this once I start them (if they're working for me). But when you keep stacking habits on each other, your whole day could just be those routines and there's not much time in between for actual paid work. I also do most of the laundry: putting it in the machine at bedtime, after we've brushed our teeth together and scheduling it to finish before 05:30 so that it takes advantage of the low electricity rate between 23:30 and 05:30. That then means that my morning routines also include another 15-20 minutes to take down and hang up laundry. More audio time, which is great. But another delay to the start of my working day. If I ever went back to an office job and had to leave the house, I'd have to change my routines. I'm still living with the legacy of lockdown and furlough, which changed the patterns of my life. Is this really a problem, though? I feel like it's sustainable and, although I'm busy, I don't feel overly stressed, anxious, or close to burnout. I just need to get better at scheduling my work, making time for deep work, and ignoring the noise of emails for the tasks I've already agreed to do. Is it broken, so do I need to fix it? Nothing really feels like a chore anymore. I enjoy my work: both paid digital work and unpaid house work. Of course there are projects I'd like to make time for: framing and hanging more pictures; reading Gregory's notebooks and filing his artworks into the portfolios that Fran gave me for Christmas; taking stuff from the garage to the tip, giving it to charity, or selling it on eBay. But I'm pretty content, on the whole. There's not a huge lot I want or need to change.

I would like to let go of any distructive behaviors and truly embody the peace I would like to see on earth. i am wanting so much for humanity to arrive at a state of calm and joy, blessings for everyone and I know that the work I need to do to do so is internal. Some advice I got in the past year was to let it all go.

I'm learning that it's still really easy for me to neglect my physical health in the name of duty. I'm disappointed because I've been trying hard to learn better habits. I need to continue to stick with this goal of prioritizing my health.

Forgive yourself. Use your intuition. Life is short.

I would like to be more generous with others and more forgiving with myself.

Get richer to buy myself more time, and scale up to get myself out of the details.

Is it egotistical to say I can't get better?! I don't know man, I feel pretty awesome right now. I'm crushing my job, I'm working out, I'm a good parent, I'm a decent friend. Kind of a crappy wife, but you can't win em all. I guess I just want to love well and take care of my body. I'm aging quite a bit and so the name of the game seems to be getting strong, staying strong. Also this is SO boring, but it would be a huge improvement to our lives if we dramatically decluttered our house and had more open space in our house. It feels almost too Sisyphean to even bother to write down here, though.

Good advice from Dena: you can think a thought and not say it. you can have an angry feeling and not share it. Check in on John, and share the junk as junk. Get in control of my food consumption again, and increase exercise by one more session

i've been wanting to seek advice on how to maintain and nurture relationships-- family and friends. i feel like i need to give up relationships or accept them in a weaker form but i, of course, don't want to! but it is overwhelming.

I would like to put more attention and commitment to my physical health and wellbeing. I have no advice or counsel that particularly touched me.

I'd like to continue to work towards a good balance between work, family, and me time. Some days I forget to have time for all 3, and I am grateful for the people around me who help guide me to a better balance.

My colleague, Ron Hill, says "Decide who needs voice, provide that voice, and use it to make a better space." I would like to better figure out how to provide a voice to those who need it.

I would like prioritize rest. I received advice from a dear friend who bravely told me, "You are enough." This truth guides me in my endeavors in knowing that my place on this earth is not defined by my successes; I am enough.

Next year will be better solely because i am determined to make it such. Each year. Every year. Moving. Growing. Healthier. Better. Self awareness!

Learn to be comfortable with myself. I am enough.

Continue to follow Mussar practice of finding the greatest joy in serving the other. Try to stay calm and loving although faced with horrible political and climate chaos. I cannot fix anything through panic or anger.

I am going to be a supervisor again! I want to improve myself by being the best millennial boss I can be. Things have changed. People have changed since the pandemic. This will be a new adventure for me! I am also trying to work on my patience. It sometimes feels like a fine line between patience and enabling. I want to learn more about how to be patient without becoming an enabler.

I’d like to get my work situation in a better place- whatever that means. My dad told me - you shouldn’t stay at a job that you hate.

Dr. Sandra Lilienthal and the Melton School: If you have worked hard your whole life, you are entitled to a little R&R!

The only improvement i want to make is to obtain mental serenity and listen myself deeply

One of my character defects is "freezing" when emotionally upset. When someone says something offensive or hurtful to me, I say nothing, and often don't even know I'm offended or hurt until after the fact. I would like to work on this and be better able to voice my feelings, rather than sitting on them.

I think I am still not super happy with work and would like to find something else, a role with more management and less "under the hood data analysis". I feel much better compared to last year, I found a way of working that I shared with my stakeholders and that makes us all much happier, my brain fog has also dissipated and I feel much more productive and satisfied with my job, but I know it's not what I want to do for another 10 years. I've been giving myself the time and space to heal physically and mentally before looking for another job more seriously, because the freedom the job I have now gives me is a major help in my recovery, but I am not sure how helpful it is because it keeps me in this limbo state. I am happiest on days I am productive and proud of my work and the balance I found at this company is unfortunately giving me a lot of space to have days of little to no work. Either I use my time more mindfully and take this free time to build something else on the side (invest, content creation, side hustle) or I find a higher paying job that demands more but keeps me happier and busier. I'd like to improve myself and my life by being more active in every way. More active in my daily life, in my social life, in my exercise routine, in the ideas I bring to life, in my job and income streams. I want to do more to get out of my slump. You want and have more energy when you do more. I need to get the wheel rolling.

I've already started toward financially stability, which is great. One thing I really want to focus on next year is strengthening relationships. I know that I struggle with maintaining friendships over distance, and I want to get better at that. I also want to continue working toward having better relationships with my brothers.

I’d like to stop trying to ‘improve’ myself and become more accepting of myself. My inner being clearly told me that I need to take better care of myself and, more important, more loving to myself. A good friend who’s a Zen Master teacher told me to accept whatever I’m feeling or thinking and know that I am bigger than either; that I am one with universal love (he said it far better, with great wisdom). Rather than view this as another ‘project’ I hope to just incorporate into my daily behavior a sense of being connected to love and gratitude.

Another year where, if I’m not fleeing the country I should be repairing my decrepit decaying house. My life overall seems pretty good, my job is challenging but often rewarding. My kids are doing well. My wife’s health isn’t great, but there’s nothing for me to do about that. No advice really.

Sometimes I lose my patience with the kids. It happened just the other night, and I’m not really sure why—I was tired after waiting in line a Walgreens, but I should be strong enough to get through they. This year I’d like to enjoy my time with the kids (as I mostly do!) without letting their antics get to me.

My counselor said recently that you have to set internal boundaries before you set external boundaries. It’s already helped a lot and I think will continue to help me set boundaries.

I just finished reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's book "Be Useful". In it he encourages you to make your dream/vision clear, pursue it like you mean it, and work your ass off. Since I lost my job, I have been floating around waiting for the perfect role to come along. But really, I already know I need to forge my own path and try the independent things I've been pondering forever. Really give being a paid photographer a chance. Really give teaching Japanese a chance. And don't apply to jobs that make me feel small just for reading the description.

I would like to be more helpful to other people.

I would like to be a more attuned, connected, and calm parent. Go slow to go fast

Communicating with more nvc techniques is one way I'd like to improve my self and life next year. Listening, identifying needs and asking would you be willing is some of the advice and clumsily that could guide me.

Well, we should finally have some work life balance, which is great. But now we need to get back out of debt. That will take more than a year. I gave myself advice when i was stressing over finances…IT’S JUST OLD JEANS AND PAPER! It’s made up, it’s a concept. It helps.

Be unabashedly honest about what you need and what your experience has been, even if no one else "gets" it. And understand that, despite the best laid plans, your needs and your timeline might not coincide with the needs and timeline of those to whom you have sacrificed your own peace and energy for so long. They will feel the void when you redirect that to, finally, starting to get what you need, and they will not necessarily support you in fulfilling it, even if they love you.

I’d love to let go of things more easily. Be less controlling and go with the flow more. I’m not sure if it would actually change any of my feelings. I feel like I’d still feel things deeply but maybe find a better way to let them out.

I would like to continue being more active and go to the gym twice weekly. I also want to be able to cycle around the city without issue. Most importantly, I MUST get a new job. I'm tired of being so poor. The best advice I got is to stop being needy in love. From my friend Delphine :)

Stop being so trusting in others and trust more in yourself. Doubt is powerful, but in the end only you held yourself back. Remember, it's not the location, place or thing. It's who you want to be.

Because of my husband’s illness and the effects of the stresses my daughter felt in supporting us during this time, my focus this year will continue to be on my family. I know the caregiver must take care of herself, and my way of doing that will be to resist loading myself up with goals and expectations. I need to eat, sleep, bathe, take time out and reflect.

I would love to have more patience for myself which is tied to my advice. Here is the advice: Things ebb and flow. Some weeks will be really hard, it doesn't mean anything. Some weeks will be great, it doesn't mean anything. Some weeks will be routine, it doesn't mean anything either. STOP MAKING MEANING OF EVERYTHING. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE TO FIX SOMETHING THAT ISN'T BROKEN. And you are enough - existing and raising daughters is enough.

I will continue my spiritual and physical practices to keep a positive attitude and to align with the spaciousness that is endless that lives within me and every living being. I will continue to support all non-dual (non-divisive) areas of our lives and be courageous enough to speak of them publicly. Everything that comes my way I take as a lamp of counsel regarding my own unconscious complicity in the workings of the world.

I'd like to show myself I can be more resilient than I think. That I can be aware of my emotions and still take actions in the direction I want. I think my therapist's advice to get back to basics with ACT seems wise.

I hope to start taking a class in SOMEthing next year--but it will probably be another year before that will happen. There's so much I want to study and likely never will, but I'd like to reach for that. I still hope to improve my friendships, particularly my oldest ones. I need to reach out more and I find that hard. I fear being rejected, even after all these years.

I'd like to step deeper into my emerging self. What does that mean? It means continuing to build a life of love, purpose, meaning. Following my heart. It is happening, naturally. The best piece of counsel I received this past year, in November 2023, was from an astrologer, who told me, "you are making the pages of your book now, it doesn't have a title yet" "let the river come to you, now is not the time for effort or control or hard work. It is not necessary, life will open up to you, will simply unfold" And this has been so so true. Engaged acquiescence to the opportunities life presents has been profoundly fruitful. It is likely a worthwhile practice forever, not just at this transformative juncture. My book project, my teaching, my house move, all are happening beautifully, amazingly. I want to continue to step into these opportunities with faith in myself, with joy, willingness and courage to expand even more.

HA my answer is very similar to last year's. I'd like to improve my discretion when choosing commitments. I want to feel that my life is full but not overfull. I can't remember if this is specific advice/counsel I've received, but my current thinking on the matter is as follows: 1) I must be ruthless in cutting down my time commitments and 2) when considering taking on new things I must consider them holistically with the rest of my life, not whether "it would be cool" in isolation.

Take slow, small steps up the mountain. Take the next step that is possible. Don't be disappointed when it doesn't work to jump. Prepare your pack. Sit down and plan. Talk to a friend. Map the course. Think what is the next most elegant step, the one that is most accessible to me now that takes me closer to my dreams in a meaningful way. Don't try to start with the dream and then be disappointed when life doesn't work like that!

Next year, I want to continue the progress I’ve been making in therapy. I started working with a new therapist, and things have been going really well. The biggest goal for me is learning to accept myself for who I am. I’ve dealt with a lot of negative self-talk and some destructive habits, but looking back, the progress I’ve made over this past year is substantial. I’m excited to see how I develop in the coming year. I hope that when I look back on this moment, I’ll be able to say, “Yeah, I’m a much more content and happier person than I used to be.” That’s really what I’m striving for—to feel more at peace with myself and the life I’m building.

Listen more and be curious before reacting to anyone - no initial response. How can I do this while at the same time honoring my gut?

The biggest thing I can think of right now is improving my attitude. I feel like a speck of the human I used to be. It’s interesting because without even reading, I know looking back the things that I had hoped to accomplish such as physical fitness and health have vastly improved. I eat well, I exercise often, I have a strong and healthy body (minus having some bladder issues… That’s fucking annoying) but in general, I’m in the exact physical fitness and appearance I had hoped for years ago. Sadly, however, I don’t feel nearly as positive or happy, which I think it’s bullshit. My life is fantastic. I have everything I could have ever wish for, and I’m surrounded by beautiful things, in an amazing country, with all of my loved ones, minus Tessa. and even without her physical presence, I have a gorgeous diamond made from her ashes. In a matter of weeks, she literally will be with me everywhere all over again. I don’t know why I’m such an asshole, but I don’t like it. So nonetheless to reiterate the question, I would like to improve myself by changing my attitude and going back into my upbeat, friendly, positive, and carefree self. I’m not sure how to get there and I currently have not had any piece of advice that has done anything to snap me out of this crap hole, but I will continue to try because I know how goddamn lucky I am, and I wish I had a smile on my face to prove it

Trust yourself. You know what trust feels like. You can trust trust. It has served, it will continue to serve.

I did a good job of controlling my emotions this past year, especially the WhatsApp unloading. This year, however, I want to focus on self-promotion, self-care, and self-improvement. My friend recently pointed out to me that anyone with kids has made a choice to sacrifice freedom in their own lives for the sake of the children. I do not want my children to be my whole life, as much as I love them. I want to keep working on myself l, in whatever form that may be. I would like to challenge myself more, particularly to get out of my comfort zone.

I want to master my emotions so I can choose what to respond to rather than uncontrollably react. Self-mastery is my goal.

Physically, I would like to continue building muscle and prioritizing sleep. Mentally, I want to continue working on accepting myself and being comfortable being alone. My mom always sends images of moving on from relationships that don't serve you. I want to continue to take this advice with me and let go of hoping someone will change and be open to new relationships.

Continue working out and getting more mobility. I’m already noticing positive changes and feel really good. Proud of myself for sticking with it, even though it’s hard sometimes. But it gets easier the more I do it. Hm, I should apply that attitude to all the other habits I want to establish :)

1. As I enter my 60th trip around the sun, and reach my 30th anniversary next year, I'd like to play catch up on world travel. We do have a fabulous river cruise planned already, and I'd like to plan more trips. I feel woefully under travelled for my age and income level. 2. I'd like to spend more quality time with my parents, wife and family next year. My parents aren't getting any younger, and time with my kids is scarcer the busier they get. 3. As I said last year, I want to be more present for people, rather than tuning them out when I want space. 4. Also, in a repeat from last year, be happy and show it more. 5. Don't be afraid to let give up control more often.

I would like to love and accept myself warts and all. Go deep with shadow/parts work to understand and thank my 'parts' ie facets of my personality that once served to protect me from a pretty shitty childhood/young adulthood, love them, and let them recede, fall away as more of my true self - all those good 'C's are nurtured and strengthened - confidence, calm, courage, compassion, caring, curiosity, connection.

I would like to lead with curiosity and not fear. This year was such a deluge of bad vibes, I often found myself fearful and seething. I want to surround myself with people and communities that make me feel welcome to be myself. Once I feel safe and held, I will be able to be more open. I have been reflecting on where shame exists for me, and how it shuts me down. I want to build more shame resilience and self-compassion so that I can remain present and not dissociate when my shame gets activated. I have found myself taking distance from quite a few people and communities in my life this year. I often beat myself up for this, because I don’t want to keep repeating old patterns of avoidance. But, through journaling and therapy, I have come to realize that I am moving away from these people and spaces because I don’t feel like I can be fully myself with them. I don’t feel safe to let my guard down, whether it’s family members operating through disordered systems of emotional manipulation, or friendships and communities that have become increasingly dogmatic. I am afraid of being attacked, or rejected for my perspective, when their approved way of viewing things has become so impossibly narrow. It would be ideal if I could state my reasons for stepping away for a sense of mutual closure. But, I feel battle-scarred by how many of my past attempts at decency have been turned into cannon fodder to wound me on my way out the door. Stakes and tempers are running high these days, and I feel like I need to choose self-preservation and personal safety over tying things up in a neat bow. It took me a long time to realize that I’ve been feeling displaced. This is how I felt when I was growing up in the midwest – like I didn’t belong, like my true self wasn’t wanted or appreciated. And it really didn’t occur to me that even now, as an adult in California, I’m still stuck in the same trap, because the politics and purported values of these spaces and relationships seemed so different. And, originally, so aligned with my own! Maybe I didn’t notice because I was conditioned in my childhood to accept a feeling of displacement as normal. Or maybe it’s because it wasn’t always like this… the shift towards illiberalism in these spaces happened incrementally, until it felt like it exploded all at once. I’m thinking of a recent conversation I had with a friend, naming how exhausted I’ve been by cognitive dissonance. Trying to balance my love for these people and hope for these spaces with how betrayed I feel by them. Trying to stay connected despite wanting so badly to disconnect and move on, but feeling like I would be the “bad guy” if I abandoned ship. My friend told me that I am not being compassionate to myself if I stay connected to people and spaces that I know are hurting me. That I can’t magically change the relationship into one of mutual respect by exposing myself to nastiness. And I realized that I can’t put the narrative of myself as “good” ahead of my actual well-being. I give myself permission to clear out these skeletons that are haunting me. I don’t want to keep wringing my hands over lost causes – I need my hands free for the work ahead of me. I want to call in that which will serve and support me, and let go of the rest.

I have become a better listener over the years, but I have a way to go. Talk less. Listen first and listen deeply.

I would like to be more forgiving of myself. To embrace softness and to develop a kinder gaze. Reminding myself that staying grounded is more important than getting things done. Thank you, Kendra Adachi.

More peaceful and less cranky. Stop beating myself up over mistakes in the past. Try appreciating who I am more. Let go of what and who isn’t working for me. Feel some joy.

A good friend told me something when I was sharing a particularly painful situation I was going through. She said, "What's going to happen is ultimately going to happen. You can suffer more or suffer less." I loved the idea that she wasn't saying there was no pain, or that I was missing the easy way around suffering. It was just that I had a choice how much I suffered and I have learned I can suffer less.

I would like to say “no” to more responsibility. Even when unemployed, I found the amount of things that I am responsible to be too damn high. Divesting more responsibilities will help easy my anxiety and depression.

I turn 50 next month and I've just gone through menopause. I feel like the next stage of my life is beginning and it's going to be beautiful. I'm ready to shed other people's judgements and just be me at last!

I’d like to be a web 3 health coach and starting making some substantial income or starting a nft/nonprofit.

Yes, see answer 6. I'm ready to get into SHAPE, and travel more! I also let the garden go this year, but need to get back at it next summer. I'm also ready to MEET GUYS! And find the one for me.

I would like to approach the new year by developing my asset-based thinking mindset. I immediately go to all the reasons why something can't work, and I want to try to think first of more reasons why it can. Or how to make it work.

Currently, I'm hunting for better balance . . . and . . . a DREAM! I would like to be less grumpy. I would like to be kinder. I would like to have less of a short fuse. I would like to heal the parts of me that startle into a bad reaction. I suppose I would like to become better at reacting? I would like to be a better wife and partner. I would like to be more supportive and celebratory. I would like to release perfectionism and lighten up! I suppose I would like to care less, and also to be more caring.

You can't control that you will hurt people unintentionally, and you might have done nothing wrong at all. But you can't control that someone will be hurt by their own shit or perceptions. And you can't fix that for them. This is hard and I'm struggling to learn this after years of wrestling with it. Because I want to fix things for people, and for no one to hurt if I can help, but my therapist says I need to let go of this need for control even if it's for a positive reason. Because it will only bring me suffering, when I cannot heal someone else. But for now, seeing people in pain brings me deep emotional pain. And I need to learn to deal with that better.

I want to keep the body/mind practices up - I turned a corner in the last few months and suddenly it is easier to 'drop in' in a non-reactive, non judgemental way and maintain the 'beat'. This kind of super-mindfulness is better than any drug I have ever known.

It's cool to see last year's aims of reading and writing more, connecting with community, and holding boundaries and taking more sick days. I've done all of these things! I'm learning that I strongly prefer community in 1:1 and small group settings. I've been reading pretty steadily, including both print and audio books. I've not done as much writing as I'd like, but more than the year before! And I've had pretty strong boundaries - with only a moderate amount of guilt about them! For the year ahead... I want to focus on tuning into what I want and need and taking steady, deliberate steps toward bringing those things into being.

I would love to be more organized in the house, particularly with Mirielle's things as they continue to take up more and more space. I'm not sure if this is realistic, but I'm going to try.

Guidance comes from reading the words of my Faith every morning & evening. I would like to be more detached from other people's opinions of me and just go forward and do the right thing. To improve my life? Lose 20 lbs and really do it. And be that much more down in debt according to our PLAN. We are doing pretty good.

The best piece of advice I've received, this year, or maybe in ever, is this: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Of course, integrating the advice is a bit harder than recognizing its value, but I guess that my goal in the coming year is not to let myself be held back by insisting on perfection, with my art, with job searches, or anything else, and to just keep putting one foot in front of the other and to know that it's better than standing in place. To mix all the metaphors, and to add Just Keep Swimming.

I want to get better at maintaining close friendships. I've become better at being social, but I think I'm very bad at prioritising people in a way that lets the relationship progress from casual acquaintance to genuine friendship.

I’m not a big fan of self-improvement, better to accept and love myself as I am, warts and all.

I want to examine my relationship with vulnerability. I think this will create less tension in my life. I want to try to notice evidence of safety in my relationships to reinforce the idea that my friends won’t leave me if I am vulnerable. I will continue to work with Markera on this.

Words that have stuck with me this past year and things I'm working on: - You can't mess up if you're improvising - Eat protein for breakfast and you will be satisfied for the rest of the morning, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach -> spike cortisol levels - Not being anxious in down time - how am I addicted to stress? How can I grow out of that? - Being intentional about time alone and time with friends - Needing rest is good and ok and I don't need to defend that to anyone - Finding fulfillment in long term projects and goals - Sometimes all I need to feel better is to get out of bed, go on a walk, and drink a big glass of water - Art is for me, the rest comes after - But I am still a talented artist - The way to get over heartbreak, insecurity, the whole lot- invest in myself and the things that make me proud to be me

I would like to continue to, in a healthy and honest way, work on de-centering myself, especially in my work as a teacher. I'm increasingly aware of how often I speak from my very individual experience, and fail to relate to the people I'm with--teaching myself, rather than relating to the room (specifically in the context of my job). It's inevitable that this is a global tendency in my life, not just at work. It seem critical that, especially with the shrinking and contentious nature of the planet, I see and acknowledge the wider perspective; not to discount my own experience, but rather to expand its boundaries, and to love people better.

I want to focus on myself a bit this year. It's been a challenging year for my family, dealing with my daughters eating disorder and my husbands mental health. This year I want to commit to spending some time on myself, with therapy and physical excercise.

Let Go and Let God

I hope to transition out of my day job and make my second career into my primary career. After much research in the past year, I feel that my day job is holding me back from becoming the person I want to be. Of course, it is not really that easy to walk away from my primary job. After spending over 3 decades there, I would be walking away from a great deal of severance if I just leave. There is always talk of layoffs, and if that happens next year, then the decision will be made for me. Either way, I need to move on. I pray that it happens the way I want this coming year.

Be more me, less how I want others to see me. Life is a gift, use it don’t abuse it.

I’d like to truly get ahold of my health. I want to be around for my kids when they’re in their 20’s and 30’s and 40’s. This year I’d like to work on getting my cholesterol lower, shifting my diet, and recommitting to exercise and strength training.

Advice I'm going to try to follow: -be patient -take the help I would like to prioritize getting physically strong and fit again. Having been through a postpartum period of my life already, I know I can get back into shape, but it's so difficult to have patience. And I know my body changed a lot more this time: my rib cage is bigger, I think I lost my waist line. Feeling rather incredulous about this. And another thing I look forward to changing but it's totally out of my control is sleep. I look forward to feeling more energized and well rested. I look forward to not feeling like my brain is stuck in glue.

I need to improve mostly in a physical sense. Get more exercise, eat properly. get more rest. I guess that the advice I heard which I need to follow is to take care of myself.

I've started a group therapy of sorts focused on overcoming my fear when riding. Its paradoxical. I love to ride but have a fear of falling and getting hurt. Through this therapy I realized the getting hurt reflex is from my childhood trauma (very abusive) and I need to just embrace the real fear of getting hurt (which is no joke) and let go of the past fear. Been really enlightening.

In Laos earlier this year I read of the Buddhist concept of the eight-fold path, which can help us strive to alleviate our own suffering and the suffering of others. There are eight considerations-right view, right concentration, right meditation, right vision, right livelihood, right diligence, right thinking, right action. They all are related. I change one, the others change too. If I change my thinking, I change my actions. If I am diligent, my vision changes. I think if I know more I can achieve more. What I wish to achieve at any given point, that doesn’t vary much from year to year. I want to write and publish, help my love, help my family, play guitar better, speak French, exercise, stay fit, be grateful, learn and grow. I still lose time to t.v. and puzzles and the roar of the media. Sports. I believe if I explore the eight-fold path, improve my speech and thinking, my concentration, my diligence, I will achieve more. Study and improvement affect all goals. So this is the goal for the year. To study and align my vision to my speech, my thought to my actions. I will take right action this year to concentrate, meditate, behave ethically and invest attention to alleviate my own suffering and the suffering of the people I love.

I hope ill make significant progress on my road to recovery

I plan as I said in a previous answer to be more fiscally responsible. Personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion.

I would like to try to care about work less, and to attempt to not derive my value from work. I keep being told "we are not saving lies" which is true. I was also told this week that I need to "work to live, not live to work" and I know deep down that's true. My passion for this work is now coming at a cost, and I want to correct course. I think that to do this successfully, I have to find other things--hobbies, people, etc.--to pour more into.

There are a couple of phrases that I have tried to adopt in this past year which I think I could do better on, and continue to implement; The time is now - do things/chores/activities as soon as possible Be patient with others - we are all going through something Furthermore, I need to be ambitious .I want to dream. And I must continue to "Go where it's Fun"

Body, soul, and spirit healed for myself and my while family.

I want to acknowledge shame and doubt but not feel like they are stopping me at all from being awesome. I’d love to be debt-free and really make good use of my time and effort to contribute to those around me and really living in my life. Yeah; this I read from Peter Shaw today: “A for effort Whether it seems like it or not, it takes the same amount of effort to be healthy, wealthy, happy and have good relationships as it does to create the opposite. The difference? The effort and discipline of moving your body, eating well, taking care of yourself, earning, investing, saving, loving, listening, and contributing seems obvious. Whereas, the effort of worrying, the energy used to have maintain a split focus, the energy and effort of internal conflict, the effort of doubting yourself, the effort of shrinking yourself, the effort that goes into a fear of rejection and fear of failure seem invisible - until I mention them.“

Connect! At times that might mean saying yes and following through, at times that might mean being select about my relationship and protecting my time. Either way, I want to do more fun things with my time and say yes to more meaningful experiences

I’d like to have a decent-paying permanent job with benefits that gives me the confidence and serotonin to improve other areas of my health, all of which are suffering because of my sense of failure.

I just want to keep progressing with my friends and hobbies.

I would like to improve by finding at least three physical things I enjoy doing and actually do them. I would also like to finish a class. A piece of advice…. Hmm… my mom asked me once if it was my best friend in this situation, what would you tell her? Tell that to yourself.

I want to find myself again. This year was so hard physically and mentally and I want to continue to heal and move forward. I don’t want to dwell on the past. I want to carve out time for myself and have it be meaningful time. I want to spend less time on social media apps. I would like to recreate a morning routine and start taking more regular walks. I want to trust myself and someday, I want to trust my husband again.

The phrase, Man makes plans and God laughs, rings true for this past year. The advice that was shoved down my throat is to surrender to what is. I have been sick most of the year and dealing with Ilan's injury and achieved very few of my goals. But many things were achieved anyway, many of them by Kenny, or the kids themselves, or other people. So if I could live better next year with what I've learned, perhaps it is to rest when I'm weary and try to do those things that make my own life more pleasant since it might be short and I can't force my kids to make good choices and I can't force my husband to care more. It's just time to let go and hope that fate will catch me and my family gently.

This is likely where the anti burnout exercise and veggies should have gone? Will this be the year I learn to relax and bring balance so i can spend time with brad and the pets? Read? Play Games? Make new friends? see more old friends? Will i walk and exercise? eat better (more fruit and veg less red meat)

I have a similar answer to last year's. I want to maintain the momentum of my health and wellness regimen, keep being productive at home and at work, continuing to explore and expand my creative abilities, and continuing to grow as a human being so I can be a great wife, daughter, sister, partner, colleague, and friend.

I would like to be more physically fit and my home to be decluttered. The piece of advice that can guide me, count your blessing and not your problems. Stop thinking about the problem (think about the solution)

I’d like to continue to find ways to connect and participate in my Jewish life and community. It’s a scary time to be Jewish. And I need to continue to find strength.

I would like to have more fun. The night of the Biden/Trump debate, my son, David, and I had a very honest conversation. We did not watch the debate. He sort of called me on my co-dependency – I was lecturing him for being complacent and not doing things and living someplace where he can thrive and be happy. He agreed but directed the message back to me.

I would like to fixate/churn less on trivial things that make me less fun to be around.

I’d like to live lighter in the year ahead. Worry less. Just step up and do things. Time is running out, and I don’t have a parent left to tell me what to do. No more waiting to make things happen. No more waiting till things are just right. ‘’Good enough’’ is the new goal.

I’m working to live a more authentic and genuine life. To be myself completely without taking on the esteem or opinions of others. To live a rigorously honest life in all that I do and to do it with kindness. Whoever said it doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be honest, has inspired me to move in this direction. I imagine by this time next year that all of my relationships will be rich with intimacy and that I will be completely self-supporting in a new way.

Surrender Let go The year for now I would like to feel, see a difference whereby I really truly love myself and care about myself. Not in a narcissistic way. In a gentle, supportive, nurturing way. It's not something I've ever had. It's not something I ever had a a child. I recognize that really I can look around for love, which seems to allude me, or I can find it within myself and give it to myself. I have been praying for three things: discernment - - because I know we all have a blind spot; an ability to see what God is providing in my life, even though it may not be the thing that I've been asking for but it's just as readily there - - and probably more beautiful than most things I could imagine; and the ability to trust that God is in charge. Those are the things I'd like to see in my life just front and center and super duper by this time next year. Surrender. Let go. I think those are the guiding things that I've learned this year that I really need take to heart as I move forward.

I want to stay closer to the surface, involved and vibrant. I plan to immerse myself in some Time energies and follow some of the sharings if Toko-pa Turner.

The obvious answer is finishing my masters, while maintaining my 4.0 GPA. I would like to find a job at a high school within my district. Ultimately, I want to stay at Hamilton because it’s my home. It’s where I’m valued and respected. I love the people I work with and don’t want to start over at a new school.

i want to be more clear about my path. to trust myself. to realize my courage.

Looking at last year’s answer I realize I didn’t accomplish any of what I said was important to me. I would say how I wish to improve is much the same as to what I hoped to achieve this year. I didn't receive any one piece of advice or insight that I can apply. Rather it’s a case of putting in the work and not wasting time or finding excuses. Maybe the phrase I need to say over and over is “if not now…”

Just go for it.

Talk less, listen more! Meditate, meditate, Meditate!

I’d like to follow the path of spiritual/human development that Rudolf Steiner articulated in Knowledge of Higher Worlds - if not to become clairvoyant - then to be a better person. I would like to practice some of the preliminary exercises - yes really.

I can’t think of any advice, but spinning my wheels and being in the same position as I was last year feels very unempowering. I think it’s time to just do the things I want to do and not wait around for my husband’s attitude to chanfe

Our kids are growing and soon we will be empty nesters. I want to enjoy every minute I can with them.

I want to improve myself by always being openminded and compassionate. I don't always put others first and I think this is something I would like to improve on, I can prosper from having some humility. I know I have a big heart, but I need to show I have a big heart. I need to allow myself to be loved and to give love as well. My mom is always stressing the importance of having faith and believing in a higher power, not totally sold on the higher power but I do know I need to be stronger in having some faith. I need to let my wall down and just let me allow myself to be vulnerable to love and happiness.

Always, take care of yourself. I even shared that yesterday. Less time at my computer, more time with Jim and friends. Once again, not much different than last year's answer.

Continuing to try to pause before I react. Continuing meditation. Trying to soften up, embrace it, and connect with others... even if that means vulnerability. Can I find the value in vulnerability? Can I find the good in it? Can I stop running from it?

The best advice I have ever received and think of daily are three simple provisos to live by: Be particular Be Curious Repair the World

Lacey was telling me about something she learned from one of her clients. Do things when you want to do them. If you wait, you might not be able to do it or you might lose your desire to do it. Say yes to the experiences or opportunities that light you up. Go on that retreat or that trip. Ask a friend to go out for coffee. Go to that National Park. Play pickleball. Do the things that will make the memories. Netflix will always be there when you get home.

I want to keep moving towards greater acceptance of the work I'm assigned in my job: what it is vs what I wish it was. My spiritual training teaches me to accept what is and see the opportunity. In so doing I hope that I can find a way to contribute to the science in meaningful ways, that will go beyond the specific tasks, with the skills and talents I have developed.

I would like to get back to more intense workouts more regularly. At the same time, I would tell myself to listen to my body and not push when something hurts.

"we are making chess moves here, not sending valentines" -- with regards to electoral politics.

Answering these questions this year, I’m starting in the middle. Life has been a little crazy recently, and the first six questions went to junk. Got this one, though, so I’ll start here. This year, I’m going to try saying no as a complete sentence. I may be justifying and explaining to myself, but really, no one else really cares, and those that might either already know why I can’t, or it’s none of their business. This is something I heard as I listened to “Wiser Than Me” interviews. While these amazing women talking about their lives with Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s certainly made me feel a bit inadequate, they have had such lives that I can learn a lot from them. So I’m going to continue to do what I’ve been trying to do this past year, i.e., do what I can and take care of myself, but explain less.

I get messages often, like in the previous answer about seeing a bright red sphere during a sound bath, and looking closer at what that meant; root, center, feel secure. Also today, my ex SIL said to me, "It's just work, don't let that shit get to you. Don't take any shit from them." We were sitting in the Oarweed, one of my favorite restaurants. We spent 3 astonishingly beautiful days here in Ogunquit. We were talking over fresh seafood rolls and espresso martinis when I told her I hadn't even thought about work. Then I proceeded to tell her about the last hour at work before I left for vacation. I made a mistake billing someone out and couldn't correct it before I left. I thought, at least if someone got pissed it would be 5 days later when I returned, and they couldn't be as pissed by then....

Over the summer I heard the phrase, "I'd rather wear out than rust out." It really resonated with me. It's a good philosophy. I want to keep being active and working out and taking walks and bike rides and living life. I'd rather need a knee or hip replacement one day from moving and living than from sitting and doing nothing.

I just want to get a better job so that the rest will follow. I am ready for this chapter of my life to be over. I’m ready for growth and change. I just don’t want the same struggles or worse struggles, I want better challenges and opportunities. I don’t think there’s any particular advice that I would consider helpful other than that there’s never really a perfect time to go for things and to be good at something you have to be willing to be bad at it first.

Next year, I would like to focus on healing my body physically from multiple injuries and managing my diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis. This journey is important to me as it directly impacts my overall well-being and quality of life. I plan to incorporate a consistent exercise routine and prioritize physical therapy to aid my recovery. Additionally, I want to work on lessening my stress and anxiety through mindfulness practices and exercises. A piece of advice I received this past year that resonates with me is to prioritize self-compassion. Understanding that healing takes time and allowing myself to be patient through the process is vital. This mindset will help me navigate my challenges with greater resilience and positivity.

TRUST YOURSELF. I think time after time I have gotten better at listening to my instinct. You know yourself better than anyone else. This doesn't mean to say no to things but instead to be INTENTIONAL with how and with who you spend your time and energy with. Also spend more time with Mom and Dad without being critical of them.

I'd like to be a better listener and more empathetic towards the issues of groups I see as the opressor, like white men. I want to be more patient and accept when I don't know something - continue to be curious to learn and humble to accept. I also want to be more professionally driven and focus on my success and professional accomplishments - want to make my time in Australia worth while. "Choose to be happy, not right". "You can't have it all, choose wisely, but don't be afraid to change your choice".

Staying sober and working the program is the number one thing I would like to improve in myself and my life in the next year. I trust that the rest will fall into place. In particular, I am keen on developing conscious contact with my Higher Power, whatever that looks like. I feel excited because I know the suffering I've endured for so many years is finally lifting, and I will be able to live a peaceful and useful and honest life of integrity. Last year, I was so concerned about getting control of my life. Now I see that I simply do not have control. Especially because of my addiction. The advice I've received that will guide me is "keep coming back, it works if you work it."

I'm happy to say that I've achieved my goal from last year of making friends; a piece of advice that really helped was treating acquaintances as if they already were close friends. Next year, I would like to be more established in my job and lose weight to under 200 lbs. I think mindful eating and mindfulness in general will help me with both of these goals. I am thinking about maybe having a baby next year but I am still unsure.

My life is pretty sweet. I would like to take better care of myself so I will have a healthy old age. I remember how my Daddy stayed active, and that kept him strong for a long time. I plan to ride my bike, walk, do some strengthening exercises and I always try to work on my diet, but at the same time, if you can't eat cake when you're old, it's a crying shame.

I would like to have more people in my life, more laughter, I'd like to make a difference in at least one person's life in a way that matters. My advice was gratitude - have it, live it, give it... its the secret sauce to a better life.

I want to be less anxious. I think it's good to remember that you can only do what you can do and anxiety can just mean that you need to let something go.

I would like to continue to improve my physical and mental health. I have learned that I do not need to feel a certain way at any given moment. If I need more time on something I can take it.

I'm working hard to make my life a better one. I am hoping I can be healthier and all my new education leads me to a better job to lead me to a better way of life. I'm in the middle of it all right now. I don't know where I will land and I still feel like I'm on thin ice. I could lose my home at any moment. I have to find my next job. I could stress myself out and just have my heart kick out. I'm so anxious and stressed out. I need to find a way to breathe.

This next year, I’d like to make sure I pay attention to things that are important to me, and not just go along with what’s easy to do.

Less talk. More read, write, exercise, walk, dance, and sleep.

For me this year is about transitions. I want to make sure I am able to retire and leave my team prepared to work without me. That means a lot of training and trying to think about what I do, what I have done. It doesn't leave a lot of time to reflect on what I will do and who I will be. I think that is okay - I tend to worry about the future - so staying present shouldn't be a bad thing.

My house is cluttered with the evidence of tasks begun but not completed. Completing any one of them would make my life better but I feel oppressed by having so many tasks and not knowing where to start.

Practice the Reality Principle more. Avoid doing things that I will later regret.

I want to do more. I spend a lot of time noticing it's a beautiful day outside, and not going for a walk. Hearing about a cool event, and not going. Seeing my sad, bored dog and not walking him. Even reading a book or watching a movie eludes me -- I just pass time passing time. Unrelated, the best advice I read this year was to discern, when someone comes to you in distress: do they want to be HELPED, HEARD or HUGGED?

I would like to show up for myself, be myself. Let those who don’t align with my authenticity fall into the composting. And decline invitations to return to old patterns.

I want to travel more. My son reminded me that I have a great opportunity to travel right now, and it was a great reminder. I’ve got to step it up.

The piece of counsel that came to me recently is that 'work is not my boss, rather, spirit is my guide'. I would like to live out this advice next year. This would mean that work is not the voice that drowns out everything else, rather I am led by the spirit, and so what flows from that is energy and excitement at all life has to offer.

Put my family first!

I would like to improve myself physically, mentally, spiritually and also with my job skills. I'm resolving to finally drop that weight that I've been saying I'll do every year, and then go back to my old self. This time, I need to change my plan to really help it stick and keep on chipping away at weight loss for good! I'm also committing to getting stronger with weight training and Crossfit classes. I'm also committing to doing more personal artistic projects like landscape painting and airbrushing my husband's motorcycle. I'd like to stop being nervous and fearful and relax more. I'd like to continue on my path to meditating every day and keep exploring it deeper. With the job skills, I need to stay on top of the latest technology and really stay ahead of the curve, which takes a lot of effort and time but I am committed to be better and more confident.

We again approach the questions that irritate me. I do not have a need to improve myself, and I feel irritated every time these questions imply that I should. I am 72 years old. I am far from perfect, but I am a good person, and have been living a good life. I have been a good daughter, sister, girlfriend, wife, mother, and friend. I did well, and went far, in school, and have worked as a psychologist (a field in which my job is to help other people) for more than 4 decades. I may not consistently work to save the world, but neither do I hurt, harm, or wrong anyone in my daily life. I try to be positive in my interactions with others. To my mind, this is good enough. Especially now, in my 8th decade, I don't need the need to continue to strive. Sometimes I think our culture values striving too much, and just being not enough.

I did do the strength training from my answer last year! Yahoo! For this year I would like to use my phone less. Perhaps try Shabbat for my phone?

get up and do what ever you can to promote healthy living

I'd like to be less of a people pleaser and think of my own needs. Talking to good friends, I just need to take more time to rest and recharge.

I want to be more uninhibited and free. The best advice that I’ve been trying to incorporate is to allow intuitive thoughts by keeping thinking at bay. Thoughts create and thinking destroys.

My mom used to warn: Don’t let your kids ruin your life. Meaning don’t ruminate and worry your life away. So I think I could definitely work on this. I’ve been very worried about my middle son as he and his wife are having marital difficulties. My husband and I have been very worried- how to act, what to say. How to deal with our two small grandkids. If they divorced, will my daughter in law divorce us? She already has in many ways. But I’d like to accept what ever happens and let the rest go. I think learning this skill will improve my life and my happiness.

Here is what I see happening: I continue to raise my vibration every single day. Even 0.5% / day- I continue raising it. I am a constant vessel of God's unconditional love to all I meet. I impart love & healing to everyone I meet, no matter how brief the encounter. I am connected to the divine and firmly grounded. I provide grounded and practical support for the kids while teaching them about spirituality, prayer and the magic and power energy, thoughts, intention, and prayer. I take charge of my finances. I give them regular attention and now the flow of resources, in and out. I am fit and healthier than ever before. I meditate, exercise and journal daily. I am writing the book about my life. I am writing a screenplay about my trip to France. I live in a fantastic 3 bedroom, 2 bath home - single level, on a sacred piece of land surrounded by an amazing garden with privacy in all the areas where it matters. The kitchen has an open plan so we can prepare food while socializing and it also has a gas stove. The home is clean, open, light and airy. It is in the same school district and I have the means to afford it. I am in Graduate school studying to become a therapist. I have self discipline and maintain a high standard for myself in all areas of life - health (mind, body, heart, energetic field, soul), beauty (home, clothing, grooming, car), Cleanliness (body, home, car-any extension of me), Kids - expectations of behavior, grades) I see myself as a leader. I take myself both seriously and lightly. I show up for myself. I listen to my intuition. I do the important things first. I take good care of my body with exercise. I am fitter, stronger, healthier than I ever have been. I have focus and a pristine morning routine. I feel empowered and present. The advice I offer myself is: Keep showing up in love. Pray everyday in gratitude and love for what you need and what you want to see happen. Follow your highest excitement in every moment. Remember that you matter! You are worth showing up for. I LOVE YOU.

I'd like to be less isolated. I'd like to be less angry. I'd like to be less afraid. I'd love my friend(s) to stop trying to run my life!! I'd like to find my old, happy, spiritual self. I'd LOVE to have a clean and uncluttered apt. again! Seriously!!

Pace myself better - better work-life balance. Believe in myself more - don’t let others define who I am. Be more active and eat healthier.

I want to keep working to figure out how to not keep making the same mistakes I have in the past. Last week in therapy, Tamar and I discussed me being a giver vs struggling to ask for what I need or receive as easily. She told me that it’s all great and wonderful to be strong and independent but asking for what I need is just as important, making myself vulnerable is just as important. I want to improve my being able to always ask for what I need, to not accept less (especially when I see it happening), and to receive as much as I give if not more.

I want to keep settling into a groove with self-love, self-kindness, and self-compassion.

Improve my health, and decrease stress. Words of advice: "Believe in yourself and listen to your heart.

Throughout my childhood my father would warn me to think before I spoke. There have been periods where I have practiced better communication skills, but since moving to East Gippsland, I realize I am shouting to be heard and seen, and taken on those bad habits again. Listening and reflecting before any response is not the rule and for every situation. But I do want to practice it - maybe master it. I already know the thoughts in my head, and if I listen better and wait to consider if/what I should speak, - I will learn new things and be more helpful...

Pause … before reacting, deciding, speaking, caring, taking initiative, saying yes, adding things to my calendar or to-do list… take time to be in the moment, be thoughtful, and remind myself how most things simply don’t matter as much as we think.

Years by John Anderson But I'm thinking of the live version by Sierra Ferrell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2W8kCk1qnU Everybody knows You gotta let 'em go And they kinda roll by Like tears Just a measure of time Playin' with your mind Passin' you by Those years Look around Up and down They're nowhere to be found Like the wind Old friends They come and go again Don't look back in sorrow Just hope you see tomorrow Those years Everybody knows You gotta let 'em go And they kinda roll by Like tears Just a measure of time Playin' with your mind Passin' you by Those years You and me Came to be We raised a family When we're gone They live on To see what we won't see Don't look back in sorrow The children have tomorrow Those years Everybody knows You gotta let 'em go And they kinda roll by Like tears Just a measure of time Playin' with your mind Passin' you by Those years Everybody knows You gotta let 'em go And they kinda roll by Like tears Just a measure of time Playin' with your mind Passin' you by Those years Oh...

I think, like all people, we strive to improve- to modify bad habits, be more patient, manage stress,etc. When I hear or encounter people who have suffered unimaginable grief or pain, it is a good warning sign to be thankful for the many blessings in life.

I would like to be less lonely, and have a slightly more stable income

To achieve you must begin by taking 1 step forward. For better mental health, focus on what you can control in the moment.

I would like to meditate more often. 10 minutes per day is my goal.

I would like my social, mental, emotional, physical, sexual life to get better.

I will not hesitate to jump into life experiences. With my health returning, I can once again do pretty much anything I want to do. And I intend to cram as much travel, art, creativity, exploration and just plain LIVING into every moment left to me.

Trust my intuition. Trust the first thing. Receive guidance and get more playful with this.

Leave the past in the past. I don't live there anymore. Besides I have enough to carry in the present. I'd like to better understand why I do the things I do and how to best live with who I am now.

Well just yesterday I had a session with Maren weber I uncovered that constant fear of "getting in trouble" that plagues me with my to do list-- Mom, of course. Also, that teenage Jackie-mom could be an alternate choice of unconditional love, boundless confidence, freedom to be 100% myself, and living carefree to do whatever is best for me. I would like to be loving much more this way by next year.

I would like to use better my time.

I would like to eat more healthfully and reduce my cholesterol. My doctor has suggested I reduce my cholesterol.

Amina said to me a quote that is loosely about knowing that even in the dark there is a road that will rise to meet you as you go as you are meant to go. I have just begun in my life to believe this. Going to keep trying in the year ahead to let this guide me.

Trust my gut. Screw the man. Be True. Be excellent to one another. Be mad. Forgive yourself for your past.

I would like to be kinder to myself. One thing that has stuck with me is that I will either rest when I need to or I will be forced to rest at an inconvenient time for everyone, myself included, if I don’t rest. I can’t do good for anyone if my own cup is empty, so my plan for the coming year is to have more compassion for myself and take breaks when I need them.

I would like to become less messy and find ways to keep the house tidier. The advice that I want to try is to do 10min everyday. Set a timer and start and see what happens.

I want to prioritize and organize better. I want to improve my relationships. Dedicate time to my health and longevity. I want to be more firm, kind, patient, and consistent with my children and the boundaries I set.

Find ways to reduce everyday worry in favor of long term joy in everyday life - the greatest gift. Dave Locy told me "gators do not bite most people, but mosquitoes drain a little of your blood each day"

I would like to incorporate more music into my daily life. I used to listen to and play music regularly, and somehow it has all but disappeared from my life. I recently moved some things around to give me more access to beloved cd’s, but it hasn’t yet led me to playing them. My instruments are kept in a room I rarely enter, so out of sight out of mind. I need to figure out how to change my music behavior, for both listening and playing, as both used to greatly improve my happiness.

I would like to have a better grip on my anxiety. I want to care less about what others think of me and care more about what God thinks of me. I want my weight to be stable and my health to be good. I want to finish this last quarter of my life well.

I would like to reduce my emotional reactivity so that I can have healthier relationships. The piece of counsel I want to keep in mind for guidance is “Trauma changes the brain, but so does healing.”

I would like to spend more quality time with my family, truly present/not on a screen. Perhaps I will try and limit screens on Shabbat to allow myself that day of rest that I never seem to get, even on days “off”. I hope to do more research into making Aliyah and try and come up with a plan to do that…sooner than later.

I do not want a king to lead me to the war, as the people said to Samuel wen asking for a king. I will walk on my own legs towards peace.

I would like to build on the physical and mental health gains of this year by continuing to swim and increasing my speed/endurance in the water.

Putting myself and my own needs first is not selfish. I can help people more when I feel 100% whole. Forgiveness is something I would like to receive so I try to give it as well. Also, accepting I have no control over others actions, even my adult children. I would like to work on building friendships.

Focus and Plan. Ok that is two things so maybe I will phrase it like this: focus on the plan.

I would still like to work on decluttering (simplifying) my home (my wish from last year). I would also like to read more and spend less time on my phone or in front of the TV.

Less rage and anger. Less jumping onto a terrifying hyena madness. No advice and no roadmap to achieve this. Utterly condemned to repeat fir the rest of my life.

I would like to take more time for myself, by being less available to others via phone or email or meet up. I'm noticing that what makes me feels as if my life is worth living are the little things--time to walk back and forth to work, a second cup off coffee and 15 minutes with a good book in the middle of the day, the time to prep and cook a nice meal in the evenings, and maybe even a moment to do the dishes and clean off the counters between therapy sessions. I want to take vacations too, but mostly, I want to make sure my days don't fly by without a few pauses for being present to the world.

I want to feel into the pain of loss while living in the fullness of love. As in this chant my friend gave me: the wound the wound must be revealed before it can be healed i appreciate what's coming up to heal i am not afraid of what's coming up to heal i am not ashamed of what's coming up to heal my transformation takes great patience feel it to heal it - elana brody

Reading last year answer my worries are the same I haven't found a way to take work life out into a normal work private relationship. As more people leave work I realised have made work our number one priority and now see the next generation takes what likes and leaves in no more than 3 years. Workplace does no longer feel our second home and now looking back to 30 years in the same place feels like the younger are taken care but not us the ones that have been a lifetime loyal to the place. My advise to my self that is in my mind is do not let work come first, place yourself first. Having said that my generation is having trouble resetting our mental clock, and we r not been helped by our employers, contrary we r continue to be overworked.

Regular movement without overdoing anything. Regular reading: books and magazines. Advice: It was from Cal Newport's book. Focus on ONE THING deeply. Not one thing forever, but one thing at a time.

I want my life to get bigger. I want to go more places, meet new people, read books, think about new ideas, try different ways of expressing those ideas, change my mind about something important, paint my house a new color. All this in order to become more and more myself, without listening to anyone's advice.

Action alleviates anxiety. Loving myself first. 25 % of the time I, we are wrong, Adam Grant. This one bit of wisdom has changed my perspective and mindset completely. Grateful for Adam Grant and his work, books.

Ditto last year's answer? what does this mean, that I could have written that exact answer today? I'm too frustrated. Will try again later. okay it's later. I'd like to have more patience, humor, grace, and love when it comes to my own foibles and habits. Guidance comes from noticing when these things are sent my way from my loved ones.

No, I can't answer this today. I have no hope right now and I don't want to deal with anything

Don’t take things so damn seriously, make time for fun every day!

See that acceptance is the path to peace

Get health in line, and don’t assume it’s about you

I have let my self-care fall off this year and I’d like to bring that back in the next year. I think that will improve my overall mental health and outlook. I can’t think of advice or counsel in this area that I’ve received in the past year. The advice has mostly been career focused and writing LinkedIn posts which does not feel comfortable for me.

This year, no matter what happens in the world, I need to focus on positive action. No matter how small the effort may seem, we are not free to desist.

I would like to become more structured and disciplined with my writing. I also need to work on improving life in my aging body. I think I should be able to find yoga courses or other exercise courses for older people, join some chat groups or other groups for people who need to manage their arthritis, and in general find ways to stay active. I would like to be more mindful and healthy in my eating habits. Finally, I want to work with my husband to figure out the best life together in retirement -- right now we seem to be pulling in different directions a bit. I want to travel the world, he objects on the grounds of climate change, and he also has no interest in going to some of the places I'd like to visit. We need to figure out how to balance our desires and support each other as we go forward.

Improving my life in the next year - somewhat depends on the outcome of the 2024 election. Should I remain in Sedona, I could improve my life by continuing to declutter and also spending more time outdoors.

Looking back to last year, I see that I actually took my own advice and have been working on my health fairly successfully. For next year? To find some joy again. Right now is particularly tough. Between the grinding antisemitism, the fears for the election, and my fears for Israel, I have nothing left. No joy. Standing on this precipice in so many ways. And it feels like we've been there for years. We have. So, as I have told others in hard times, perhaps I need a gratitude practice this year. Outside, in my beautiful yard.

The Lord’s Prayer Mother/Father God, Divine Beloved. Blessed be your name! Fill us with your love and let your will be done on earth through us. Provide us with all we need as we go through this day. Let us speak kindly but honestly with each person we meet and listen with the intent to understand. Forgive us of our sins and help us to forgive those who sin against us. Keep us from temptation. Protect us from evil. For we are in you. You are in us. We are one. All is well. Let this guide my life in all situations.

I would like to be able to let go of at least some of the habits I use to distract myself. Contemplating retirement is anxiety producing but it also teaches me that it is time to focus on what has meaning for me, to use my time wisely the way I want to have used it rather than to avoid feeling. The good advice I have gotten is to give my life space to breath trusting that it will present opportunities if I make the space for them

I would like to be comfortable with my independence as a widow, to continue to live healthfully, and to be more adventurous. The best advice I've received this year is to be cognizant of time boundaries. Everything I'm interested in can be achieved by placing time limits on each as I'm learning and experiencing them.

Land a new job and carve out a desirable career path. The advice would be to do things scared and unapologetically.

I'm not sure what my feedback is lately, or what I'm doing 'wrong'... I get in trouble for setting boundaries, for being too 'there' and for hiding out... I think improvement lies on the path of being authentic and calm. I need to look at my shaky, shadow self and fix her up a bit. She's freaked out by something. I need to find out what that is.

You need to focus on your own projects.

I would like to stop being afraid. Afraid of falling down, afraid of getting sick, afraid of letting down my children. I don't know how to get beyond those fears. I'm hoping I'll get back to where I was pre-covid.

I would like to improve myself in so many ways. Thank you for asking. I would like to be kinder, more loving, more patient, have more integrity. I would like to prioritize my relationship with God and after that my relationship with my husband. I would like to model healthy behaviors for my children and students. I would like to lose 20 lbs. I would like to have a black cat. Ok, that one is just a dream. I don’t know that I’ve really received any specific advice in the past year that would help me with any of this. I saw this quote recently and would like to live my life by it: “time spent with cats is never wasted”.

I would like to be more mindful and attentive to the things that are important around me, like being more diligent about my work, treating my body better through more frequent exercise, giving my dog the kinds of walks and exercise outings she deserves, among other things.

Just get your ass out of bed, girl. No one's going to help you reach your goals but you. As I'm typing this answer, I just finished a killer lower body workout and ran for 1 mile. We were set to run 3 miles but the workout murdered my legs. But I still did it! I know that I will start feeling better and stronger. To be honest, recently, I feel like there's been a huge mindset shift in my head that I'm only really in competition with myself and no one else, and it has given me peace. I don't know if I have ever felt like this. Is this what being mature means? LOL. Says the girl who types lol. Planning to ride this thing through the end!

To fake it even better. Although death would be preferred.

I would like to stop giving myself a hard time about not doing all the things I think need to be done. Relax more and feel just as accomplished not getting stuff done than I do when I complete my "do to" list.

I would like to heal my abandonment issues some more. I would also like to keep trying bigger things than I've ever tried before. I need to keep remembering the advice that people actually don't generally think bad things about me, and if they do, they're probably not people I should have in my life

I would like to manage time better.

I am trying to lose weight. I think that I would have more energy and feel better about myself. I have thought about using something like Ozempic but have had a lot of complicated emotions about that. Right now, I am losing without using any weight loss medication. But my sister said, "If losing weight will help you feel better about yourself, then try it." Her saying that gave me permission to keep it in my back pocket.

Logically assess situations as they come up. I've already mentioned restarting golf so I would like to add improving in the ball room and Latin dancing that I'm doing. I would also like to cook more and diversify my diet, which is healthy but too reliant on broccoli, carrots and chickpeas. I also need to get around to exploring volunteering with Elder Care or something like that.

I want to keep on being healthier. I've been working on that, but for every success there is another roadblock, like the IT band syndrome I've been working on for more than four months. Among last year's improvement goals, I have indeed got my yoga practice back on track, and the joint pain, which disappeared right before the IT band syndrome cropped up, is much better.

I would like to move slowly and with intention. My goal is to live an unhurried life and soak in all of my favorite people as much as possible. I want to be fully present to this one precious life we’ve been given. I want to live fully alive. To savor each person. Every place. All the goodness that our Creator so graciously shares.

I’d like to be more me, whatever that means

Run more and work out the rest of my body (strength, flexibility). Sleep. Make more meals ahead of time. Be social (family, friends, the world in general). Get out to more concerts and read more books. Set aside time to do nothing but then spend the rest of time getting what needs to be done, done.

“Remember it’s all about what you can control, and letting go of what you can’t” also next year I would like to be more at peace with where I am house and school work wise

Move a little quicker. Enjoy it when moving more slowly. Be mindful. I often overthink things, wanting to plan for all contingencies, figure out all details in advance. This can be helpful, but it can also unnecessarily delay starting on something worthwhile. At worst it can even be a fear-based procrastination tactic. Being mindful can help me to know which it is. And then--leisurely days spent doing just what I want to do in the moment rather than preplanned activities is exactly what I need. Taking my time to envision a whole lot of stuff I want to include in a new program I'm developing can be fun and enthusiasm I need to keep going with the project--even though the idea spreads like splashed puddle, and I know I won't be using most of it. Again, mindfulness keeps me from kicking myself for wasting time and not being organized enough when I really did need the leisurely pace.

Continue to figure out how to be social, polite, and even uplifting to others despite my introversion. Exercising with Aaron continues to be very helpful for our bodies and our relationship.

To keep writing. As my words have resonance. All the support and encouragement from everyone in A Poetic Journey’s aftermath has given me a sense of validation. I want to run with that as far as I could.

Your best is more than enough. You cannot be at your best 100% of the time, and not every problem needs your best effort. Give the time and attention that each issue deserves.

I would like to feel more confident in myself I would like to live in the moment more instead of focusing on the past and future so much. I was advised that my value is not tied to my usefulness.

Plan specifically for multiple days of exercise each week and get serious about weekly prepping for and actually eating healthfully. Apples, not chips!

Be present. Continue to savor kid moments. Give independence and delight in what comes from it. Listen to my instincts, my body, my feelings, my opinions - not to “should on” others, but to notice my judgments & choose my responses intentionally. Be curious.

I would like to find a different balance. I have made progress in terms of having a life outside of work again, and in terms of honing in on the duties that suit me best at work. Not as much progress as I'd like, but progress. Next is a balance between ignoring myself and over-indulging myself. I've heard various advice about budgeting and such, but. I know that when I start counting it does easily become nothing. I don't know what the advice is that would lead me to balance.

I will need to find a way to be more judicious about how I spend my time. I can't do everything.

Burrow out of this rabbit hole I'm in. Anxiety, duty, instead of just living - because I don't know why I'm living and still hold on to the idea that I must'do' something to 'justify' my existence. I just seem to look for the next chore and not give enough credit for the ones I do. Expectations of others and feeling guilty for not doing enough to make other lives bettter. still hurting from being shoulted at that I "upset" my grandson and no discussion, everything is always because of me. Just want to be in nature, growing things, able to get up off the ground, run and walk. Now I reallize I'm old and there is nothing ahead for me except death - everything that could have been was impossible because of the illusions I carry.

Try not to catastrophize! I seem to be a worst case scenario person. Parts of my body exploding. Gelatinous tumors wrapping themselves around my spinal cord again. I also feel like I'm annoying my son and I'd like to not do that. He certainly doesn't want to be unemployed and living at home. I like having him here, but offer way too much advice I think.

God is in the Pause. Friendship is where the growth is going to be. Relationships are where the miracles happen. I have some tools to make these things the biggest parts of my life every day, but I will need to continue to prioritize and focus on it.

I haven’t received any specific guidance. I’d like to improve health and fitness. I say this every year but end up doing nothing about it.

I would like to finish filing my taxes and have a plan to pay them off or am paying them off by this time next year. I would like to be stable in my work schedule and have steadily expanded times that I have private practice hours at the clinic. Ideally, I would like to be there three days a week (not all me). Self compassion, self compassion, self compassion.

Moderation, like I said last year, is still a good goal. A lifelong one for me. But I think I’d like to add a regular writing practice in there, too. Writing, though very frustrating, gives me such satisfaction. Even the lousy sessions are good. :)

I would like to be more at peace than I am today. I am anxious and worried about (seemingly) everything right now. My therapist always tells me to "keep my side of the street clean" - manage what I can, let go of the rest, etc. I hope - a year from now - I am living that vs. worrying about everything else.

I want to become a better listener. I want to speak less and draw others out more. I want to find more joy and interest in learning about others or hearing them out, rather than in sharing my own story or ideas. Also, I want to try to follow the Buddhist advice that I once read, that before speaking, our words should pass through three gates: Is what I am going to say true? Is it necessary? Is it kind?

Dr Nayeri always admonishes me to "go live my life' and that is exactly the advice I want to hear. Improving myself will be spending more time with my kids and grandkids as they give me so much joy. Being with Francoise makes my life better.

I would like to be less judgemental of myself. I would like to live a healthier lifestyle. Best advice I received is that two things can be true at one time AND we are all doing the best we can in any given moment (but we can still always learn and do better).

I deserve to feel on top of the world– having fun, feeling successful. On the struggle bus right now– but I am feeling great this time next year (if not sooner). I just got some guidance to stop struggling, stop resisting, let it be, and let it come to me.

I would like to be more forward with my wants and standing up for myself. The main pieces of advice I've been living by have been 1. Do it, and if you're scared, do it scared. 2. Being alive is as special an occasion as it gets 3. Your personality is not set in stone - if you dont want to be like this, then don't. Don't let what you don't do define yourself.

Improve my marriage, do things together that we both enjoy and/or do something together that one of us like - take turns.

I want to be the best possible me I can be. I want to be an amazing rabbi for my new community. I want to take better care of my body.

I will be fully supported as I let go of my current position and move into the rest of my life as a coach, speaker, facilitator, workshop director, creator, memoir writer... I will have a flourishing full-time coaching practice. I will have three standing motivational speaking gigs. I will have completed five group workshops and have three others scheduled into the future. I will have written a draft of my memoir which I have also shared with an editor and friends for feedback. I will do none of this alone. I will be fully supported and championed.

To get out more with other people. Eg church and group

Get healthy weight wise. Stop the nighttime eating and sugar addiction. Also do more volunteer work because now that Jared is gone we have time on our hands we didn’t have before.

Life is too short, grab it while you can. I really want to go and see a different country next year, see a Spanish band play. I want to achieve some dreams.

More time outside, biking, and reading. More time being present with my children without a screen. My blood pressure staying within normal range.

I understand that as life is short and unpredictable, it is important to be flexible and follow your dreams, whilst remaining true to your values. In doing so, I will consider how this will affect my family members.

To keep involved in a pursuit. At the gastrointestinal doctor in Ibarra a week ago, this was encouraged. Then, by pure chance, I searched "learn biblical hebrew in context" and landed at the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, looking as if a messianic side-gig. But it's at the Hebrew U of Jerusalem, and it's legit, even with a deep enough investment (about $25/week) to mean that you muss stick with it.

With busy schedules, actually taking the time to fully rest each Shabbat.

Just stay focused on what's working well. Try to have fun, and don't take it too seriously.

Here's my advice to myself: It's all going to be OK, in fact it all is OK already. It all just is.

In the last year I've had many encounters with people that are walking my path, or rather we're walking the same path. Many of those encounters have contributed to this deeper sense of centeredness and calm that I've been experiencing lately. I hope to continue on that path and increase my mindfulness, compassion, and joy.

I would like to work on my insecurity surrounding my personal relationships.

I am working on being aware in the moment of my feelings and articulating them when necessary. I noticed I was defaulting to trying to figure out what the other person wanted in any given situation without even truly checking in with myself. One piece of wisdom my therapist told me this year is that I am really only being authentic with people when I let them know how I truly feel about things. And authenticity is necessary for good relationships.

Pay more attention to personal health issues. The VA suggested help bu prescribing Wegovy... which I'm currently doing.

I want to consume less social media and start checking news only twice a day (morning and night or noonish and night). I heard recently that a rabbi said that "Worrying is like worshipping your problem instead of worshipping God." I think that constantly focusing on what's going wrong with the world rather than what's going right just aggravates this habit.

I would like to continue taking care of myself and continue eating healthier and cooking more and more often. Best advice I've gotten is to work to continue learning others' stories as a way of helping build better connections between people. I feel like my new (old) mission is to work on helping others learn about navigating and dealing with the lies we see online all the time.

I'm pretty pleased to say I really like my life and myself presently, so I see "improvements" as an invitation or way to cultivate joy and fulfillment. So continuing on the path of developing new interests and skills would be nice to see from me this next year. And remembering that it's both okay to start off bad at something as well as okay for things to not be completely perfect.

Improving myself is also about building/connecting with my community. Not just about learning more knowledge, but creating action with it. I’ve been reaching out with people that I walk away thought-provoked, supported, and I consider that they may be a bigger/more important reason why these people are in my life. The belief or perspective of there’s a reason why this person is in my life - and leaning into how they may want to be a part of this bigger vision I have is a way of guiding me in building this community.

Take up space. Walk into any room like you belong there.

REST. Less crazy, more rest. A better balance of home and work and home-work. This is completely unsustainable, and you know that and have corrected for this before. Time to do it again.

Be independent financially. Making an income on my terms, at my pace. Be authentic, not gullible.

In a thousand little ways. Life is about choices, right? I want to make tiny, conscious decisions everyday that slowly improve my life and my self. I’ve received so much valuable counsel and advice this year, could I pick just one? I think at this time, it is important to think on Rumi’s poem, ‘The Guest House’ : This human being is a guest house. Every morning, a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, Still, treat each guest honorably. Each may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in! Be grateful for what comes. Because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

I am hoping to lean more into relationships and grow my relationships and social network.

Though I have taken some baby steps, my answer from the past two! years still holds: “I have to find the time and the energy to do something for myself. MY entire existence revolves around what is best for my daughter and husband. There is currently no room, no time, no energy, for me to do something that is for my own pleasure and growth and joy. Frankly, I still don’t see how I can jam that in without hurting them, though.”

Improve my cholesterol -currently 289

I would like to be more financially stable. I just agreed to take on my first intern so I do feel like I’m progressing with my business. Hopefully I will get the opportunities to get my finances under control as well. And I want to be a bit more selfish and do more of what I love. Not really advice, but being this sick made me realise that sitting still at home is not my thing. I need to move and need to be moved. And I want to be seen so I want to progress in that direction as well

I would like to feel greater support and stability in my life in all ways. Financially things are untenable but I am resistant to making needed changes. And I've been going it alone for a long time. I need a safety net.

Get healthy! Advice: do what YOU think best!

I want to develop the abilities to run a small museum.

I want more balance in my life. I want to feel like life is more manageable. Lots of advice I have received is already helping me with this: - regular gratitude lists (these have already helped me start to see more balance) - does it need to be said? right now? by me? -the serenity prayer

I think I've learned that anxiety is a wasted energy zap. If I let go and let G-d, the result is no different than if I agonize about it. I can't control much. And letting go of the battle for control let's me off the hook for the outcome. It's a bit humbling, and maybe even spiritual, but I think letting go of my control and judgment issues will give rise to a lot more positive relationships.

Be as proactive about my mental health as I am about my physical. health. Samantha gave me great advice when I was talking about how much grace I gave myself when pregnant. She pointed out that I could do the same today, but I am choosing not to.

I want to be gentler with myself, and be more present. Advice screams at me from all my screens. I believe getting away from that advice more regularly and being more intentional about how I spend my time may be part of the answer.

I would like to finish my paralegal course, and get a job as a paralegal. It will improve my life by getting me away from the things at my current job that are causing me stress, and it will be exciting to be doing something new and using my analytical skills in a different way. There's no adivce or counsel from the past year that is guiding me.

Stop trying to show off what I know. Nobody on my team listens to me because I don't have my licensing finished yet. I'm just pissing them off, when I could be making them eat their words a few years down the road. It's infuriating to watch them make mistakes and twiddle my thumbs while they do it, but I'm "just shadowing" and I "need to sit down". I also move from this team in April and it can't come fast enough.

It's unfortunate, but i keep saying the same thing every year - I want to become more motivated to do the things I say I want to. But on the positive side, I've continued to strengthen the bonds with my family. No particular advice I've received.

Stay in touch better with family & friends.

I would like to stay active, keep weight down and eat healthier. I would like to read more; play computer games less. I would like to enjoy and initiate sex more often.

My youngest sis is vegan and also quite learned in overall nutrition, so I am trying to apply things she's talked about. I don't think I'll become fully vegetarian even but I continue to eat less meat.

I would like to save more for retirement and spend more time with good friends making memories. I’d like to have a routine that allows me to own a pet.

Always the Twelve Steps. Also middot, which seem to walk hand in hand with the steps. I would like to keep walking the path, and be way more consistant in doing for myself the things I offer to the people I sponsor in the program.

I would like to be more accepting and also more active in doing real work to combat that which I oppose. I would like to help Scott get past this health anxiety and get back to living our lives. I would like to figure out where I really want to spend next year and beyond. I also still want to do what I wanted last year: to be more compassionate (which I think I've been to others) and also to value myself to ask for what I want.

I want to break up with my phone and focus on the true meaning of attention. I want to spend my attention on the things I truly value. Yes, leisure and some degree of numbing is part of that, but that all needs to be carefully contained (and appreciated).

Next year I'd like to be living in an apartment where everything is properly stored and that doesn't have any unnecessary excess. I'd also like to be done putting up the decorations I currently have. I want to have grown in being consistent in organization and with discipline. Having discipline and living in an aesthetically pleasing, organized environment would help me in living my life as I want with consistent exercise, eating healthy, partaking consistently in interests, pursuing my writing and sharing with others to encourage, uplift, and edify, and to feeling secure in my place in the world.

There are so many improvements I would like to make in the coming year. I want to learn how to stop hanging on to resentment and anger. I want to find the balance between being a good partner and being true to myself.

Remember the Ronald Reagan story about the optimistic child and the pessimistic child. There must be a pony in here somewhere!

I want to find something this year that feels wholly mine and wholly fun. So much of life feels like hard work lately - parenting, marriage, my actual job, and even writing. I remember reading in The Power of Fun about seeking out experiences that create playfulness, connection and flow, and I realized that I haven't had much of that lately, and that it's important to me. I also realize that I will be a much better mom if I'm a happy person (and a better partner too) and I owe it to Matt and Jules as well as myself to do what I need to do to stay happy.

Stop trying to please people. Just love the people you love as best you can. Apologize when you’re wrong or when you’ve hurt someone. Repair, repair, repair!

I'd like to find my ikigai. Reading Essentialism (Greg McKeown) provided a useful lens for me.

I would like to continue to pursue greater fitness- started at Flexx fitness about a month ago. I would like to be more patient with Addie.

I would love to have a new job that challenges me. I want to work somewhere where not only do I feel valued for my expertise but also what I do is adding value to the lives of others. This year I am trying to be Responsive not Reactive to life.

It's time to let go of my productivity fetish.

For the past few years my goal has been to hold work more lightly and to make more time for Chris, Mom, and the grandkids. I think I am succeeding at holding work more lightly. Maybe a little better with Chris and Mom. Not much progress with the grandkids. Those are still goals. I also want to continue to make progress on my blood sugar. And, what I most want is to just be present in my life and appreciate what is. What if I let go of my identity as a striver?

This year would be a good year to focus on health. I’m about to turn 71, and health is something that has largely been taken for granted. Several events have changed the aperture of how I see life. The first and most wrenching was the death of a very close friend. Lou struggled with cancer for years, but eventually his indomitability was worn away. His admonition that nothing lasts forever, and that I should take a serious look at choices made was driven home. Other friends are also experiencing serious health issues. Thus far, I’ve been spared, despite some really bad choices, and I’m not oblivious to the fact there aren’t too many years ahead. It’s time for serious change. Among the changes are a well developed fitness plan and full retirement. Part-time income is great, but the stresses involved at this stage of life aren’t worth the time sacrificed.

I would like to give myself grace and permission to enjoy my life. While I have certainly made the most of the opportunities provided to me in college, I didn't enjoy them as much as I could have if I had just relaxed and stayed present. This is consistently the advice given to me by fraternity brothers, family members, and even Olivia Zaid (who has re-entered my life after a year and a half of dormancy). In entertaining a potential relationship with her and all of my other exciting social endeavors, I must be where my feet are and soak in the moment.

Nothing to improve this time. Weight is the same it's been for the past 4 YEARS... 144.5, so I think that's where my body wants to be, and I'm ok with that. Same advice as last year... RELAX and focus on the positive in MY life and family and shut out the rest of the world!

I hope I can put my device away more and be more present in the moment and less distracted by technology. I would like to finish more books, spend more time in joy than in sorrow. I hope a year from now, I am truly in joy living in Seattle and have found a way to really listen deeply to my soul about my relationship with Dennis.

Get a government job that pays masters degree money, win Patience, lose weight and live a worthy life

I want to be freed more from the past and focus less on self. I have made mistakes in the past; I have said things I shouldn't have said; I've done things I ought not to have done, but I can not change that now. All I can do is move forward with those lessons learned. I have beat myself up for years and felt guilt for things that I cannot change, all I can do is move forward. The more I focus on that, the more I spiral into myself, but I have a Savior who died for my sins and forgave me, and when I focus on these things, I am rejecting Jesus' sacrifice and saying it was not enough to forgive bad things I've done or erase my guilt.

Continue my home maintenance answer from last year. This coming year I want new windows and a total garden revamp. I also want to maintain my current weight and try to lose another 10 kg, if possible.

I intend to ground more deeply into my integrity and authentic authority. I will accept no lies, no BS. I will tell it like it is from my deepest instinctive, intuitive, and intellectual experience, knowing, as I do, that we are nearly all of us wounded AND my wounds do not define why I chose to be here now during this time of collapse and transition. I am here to embody Radiance and beam that out to others. I am here to shine into density and raise density into awareness, giving attention to presencing, weaving and reweaving with Universal Intelligence. Intelligence is everywhere. Attune to the awesome truth of this dynamic. Listen to your Soul and Spirit. The Mystery guides us ALL if we but pay attention. Love. Love the gift of breath, of Life. Love the gifts of Sun, Moon, stars, planets, plants. Give gratitude to the numberless beings who have given of their lives and labours that we may all be nourished into evolution. Come what may, grieve we shall, lovingly, tenderly, and LOVE with JOY.

I don't remember if I heard this comment in the past year or in the year before that - I think I heard it in both - but my now-ex-girlfriend told me at one point that she thought I didn't know what I wanted in life - where I wanted to live, what I wanted to do for work, that sort of thing. I think she definitely overstated elements of that, but she was also pointing out something true in many ways. I'm now trying to figure out what I want to do with my job, with my living situation, with various friends I'm still in touch with. I don't have a particular piece of advice to guide me here, but I'd like to have a better sense of what I want from life. I also recognize that this is a lifelong task and not something I'll accomplish in a year, but still - it'd be nice to have a bit more clarity about what sort of life I want to live a year from now.

I would like to be a bit more kind to myself, all round, and take care of myself a bit better. I only get one chance at this life and I need to make sure that I'm thriving, not just surviving. If I want to stick around to see my grandchildren I need to make changes now. That includes things like self-care, standing up for myself, making necessary changes, and working on self-improvement to benefit the family, my marriage, my work life, my social life and my spiritual life

I would like to be able to be more patient and have less anger toward M. I really just need to work on being heard and not being angry when that doesn't happen. It hurts so deep. I need to breathe and take a moment, I know -- but it is so hard sometimes.

Realizing that the world really doesn't care about you is actually pretty liberating. No one will care about my little mistakes. I can fail as many times as I have to in order to make my life better. This isn't advice that I got from someone else, just my own insight.