Jan 14, 2022
LOOKING AHEAD
Looking ahead.
A new year causes us to try to think ahead. A new year causes many of us to think about things we want changed, things we want to do differently, things to be better, and we think about things we want to improve on.
Looking to new heights. Envisioning new goals. Looking for a better tomorrow. Looking for improving. The key word is looking.
What do you envision for this new year for yourself? Each year, many people establish “New Years Resolutions”, or a “New Year Plan”. Some people write out their goals. There is something about starting anew, starting fresh.
It is no secret or surprise to us that these past two years have been tumultuous. With this fact, much stress has been added to our lives and our loved ones lives. When stress is present, it is dealt with many different ways. Some of us deal with stress through over-eating, some of us deal with stress with over-exercising, maybe for some, taking our stress out on others.
As we are still in the midst of this pandemic and the different variants and stages, we must look ahead. What do you want to do differently in the new year? What to do want to change in the new year? With the new year, most of us think we must create some new vision board, or internal visionary plan for change. What about those of us who just want to maintain what we’ve been doing? We’re the ones who have created a plan that is working, but the momentum has dwindled. We’ve seem to have lost our zest for the initial plan. There is no need to re-create the wheel, we must re-focus, possibly re-structure and look ahead.
Looking ahead requires planning. Planning for your next move. Will your next move require re-building, or will it require adding on to your already sufficient plan? When we create new plans, whether it be an exercise plan, a financial plan, or a self-improvement plan, we tend to discredit the plan we may have had before. This action may cause feelings of failure and then hinder our success of our new plan. We must be careful of discrediting our thoughts and intentions. If we know our intentions were of good, even though the plan may not have worked out at its best, we must remind ourselves that we did try, we did have good intentions and therefore re-build on the initial plan. When we look at any failed attempts with a positive outlook, our future attempts build off of positive energy rather than a negative attitude of failing.
This mindset is especially helpful when reaching or maintaining your workout goals and healthy lifestyle goals. There are so many life events that can possibly cause us to get off track, but when we look ahead and envision or goals again and restructure them in a way that honors our determination, we can get back on track without guilt. We can get back on track without demise. We can get back on track without condemning ourselves.
So look ahead. Look toward your goals with a restructure mindset. Look toward the new year with a reset mindset and continue to build on what you have started.
By: Eden Barbee-Mabry / (@gardenonthegram – IG/ @EdenJBe – Twitter)
Eden Barbee-Mabry is an Education Support Analyst with the State of Georgia. Eden is a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan and was led to relocate to Atlanta, Georgia after graduating from Clark Atlanta University in 1988. Eden joined Black Girls Run! in Spring of 2016 and graduated from the Walk B4 You Run program in June of 2016 and is currently Run Lead for the Fairburn, Georgia group. Eden is a purse lover and strives to inspire every woman because her belief is that although the circumstances may be different, every woman can extract strength from another woman’s story.