By Ellie Bishop McKenzie

If you read John Mariotti’s Sunday Story, “The Critic and The Cheerleader”, then you know that as this year draws to an end you need to kick your inner critic to the curb and allow your inner celebrant to have all the fun. There are so many important parts to this decision, including making a conscious choice to think positive and focus on how lucky we are and how amazing our lives are. However, it also helps us when it comes to making goals for the year to come – because yes, it’s that time again! But let’s have some fun with it this year!

One of the things I like to tell people is to live the life you want your kids to live. We wouldn’t want them to talk negatively about themselves, so we can’t do that to ourselves. We don’t want them to be unhealthy, so we have to live healthily – eat right and exercise. We don’t want them to get bogged down with work and forget about living a fulfilling life, so we have to get out and LIVE a fulfilling life. Because as many of us parents know, our children are much more likely to do as we DO than do as we say.

So as you assess the last year and plan to make this next year amazing (no matter what craziness is going on in the world!) I want you to get creative and think about what fills your cup and makes you happy and fulfilled. What positive things can you say to yourself each day to get you excited? What changes can you make to live healthier but still enjoy every day? What do you want to change in your work life and your personal life so that you are living your most fulfilling life?

I INVITE YOU TO MAKE 3 LISTS – The Mundane, The Nuts and Bolts, and The Extraordinary.

• The Mundane is those nagging things we know we need to get done this year such as replacing the old water heater or lowering your cholesterol or getting that dreaded colonoscopy you’ve been putting off 🙋‍♀️. They’re not a lot of fun but we know they need to get done.
• The Extraordinary is the wild, crazy things you’d like to accomplish like climbing Mt Kilamanjaro (one of mine) or getting into a body building competition or competing in the CrossFit Games or maybe buying your first house.
• The nuts and bolts are the little things we need to accomplish to get those other things done. For example, to get the new water heater we need to make some phone calls, get some pricing information, set some money aside and schedule the thing. To do my best at entering the CrossFit Games I might need to learn how to do a muscle-up, improve my cardio, increase my major lifts by 5-10% and maybe lose 10lbs by tightening up my diet. And to climb Mt. Kilamanjaro I need to contact my frinds who have gone before me and get recomendations, research Climbing companies, set some money aside, book the trip, find child care during that time (if needed), find the necessary equipment and so much more.

Then you can pick and choose which of these things you think you can accomplish each quarter, each month and possibly even each week. You’ll accomplish the mundane with a lot less effort and you will get out and LIVE that extraordinary life you’ve been putting off. And that, my friends, is priceless and it sets your inner cheerleader on fire!

Here’s another thing to remember – losing weight and getting fit is important – especially with COVID in our new world. However, most of us don’t view losing weight as something that fills our cup. So maybe give yourself a bigger goal – something that you can ACHIEVE or ACCOMPLISH – that will involve losing weight so that it doesn’t feel like a total drag on your psyche – it’s only the nuts and bolts of the bigger, better thing you want to accomplish.

If you have goals that include your health, or anything else we can help you with, we invite you all to schedule a 15 minute goal setting meeting with us where we can go over your goals and see how we can help you reach them and keep you accountable. Remember, you only have one life to live. Make your Journey Extraordinary!