New Year, New You? Align With What Matters Most Now
Two years ago, I almost died on a balcony in a snowstorm. I got locked out immediately after a polar bear jump, completely naked. In the 30–40 minutes I spent outside kicking, screaming, and slamming my numbing body against the shuttered, empty house in the middle of the woods, I had an extended moment of thinking, “This could be it.” After I survived by jumping off the balcony and throwing a rusted gate through the kitchen window, one thing changed.
I started spending more time with people I love.
Are you making new choices? What does this tell you about how you’ve changed? Reflect to align with what matters most to you now.
There’s a lot of talk about values, but what are we talking about? To find what matters most to you, look at how you spend your time. What do you actually, not ideologically, prioritize? Does this align with who you aspire to be? If not, how can you take actions that do?
Back to me naked, saving my life in a snowstorm. When I thought it was over, I remembered what I'm here for: not human perfection, human connection.
I used to be the strongest girl you knew. Traveling across Europe, moving across the country to LA, taking on chronic illness, Thanksgivings, and meditation retreats alone. Isolation was my suit of armour.
All this time, I was harboring the most embarrassing secret: I was praying for love. I feared I’d never have it. Maybe not in this lifetime. When my “lifetime” was likely to end in the next 15 minutes, love for my people gave me the strength to save my life. I saw my sweet nephews in my mind and thought, "No effing way."
My actions changed. I knew now that self-protecting by isolating was not living. I was grateful and hungry to live.
I’m right now writing from my mom's house on the Cape. I came to do a solo winter work retreat. But even on the bus, I knew this was an "old me" choice. I took yesterday to languish on rainy walks, watching the gray sky meet the rumbling sea. And I changed my trip to leave this morning, coming back to Brooklyn, where I live in a studio apartment with the love of my life. I met him a few months after I saved my life. He was sitting on a stoop reading. Another love story for another day.
I now take fewer and shorter trips alone. What matters most has changed.
What behavior changes have you noticed? What does this tell you about what matters most to you now?
If, like me, friendship is newly high on your list, I have the exact right invite for you.
Tomorrow: Friends at Work, a free training and Success Circles mixer
Jan. 31st, 2024, 9 a.m.–12 p.m. E.T, Zoom
9:00-10:15 a.m.: Community training
10:30-12 p.m.: Success Circlers can choose to stay for a session with a new circle Invite someone you want to deepen a friendship with.
Featuring special guests Anca Rizescu, MBA, Global Head of Oncology Project Leadership at AstraZeneca and Judy Francolini, NLL executive coach and founding Success Circle member.
RSVP: TNL@the-next-level.com
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6544420788
Learn about our new Success Circles membership program @ www.the-next-level.com/sc2024