The Balanced Life, Huntsville Alabama

Happy New Year all!!! I have the privilege of providing you all with the first TBL blog of 2018. Many of us are fully pursuing resolutions to improve ourselves and our circumstances. Listed below are a few tips to help you meet all of your goal in 2018. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

I received a random email one morning last week called “Trivia Daily”. I have no idea how this landed in my in-box or how I got on their email list. Normally I would delete such an email and never look back and I might even delete myself from their email list. But this particular morning I opened and read the email.

Ah, it’s that time again…New Year’s Resolutions! It seems most of us can be divided into two camps- those who have given up on even setting any resolutions each year, because, well, we often don’t stick to them beyond January 15^th or so. And the other camp- those who continue to ambitiously establish a slew of goals for the new year that go to the way side by January 15, even despite our good intentions.

Most people are probably with me when I say, I’m looking forward to a new year! Possibly more than I ever have before. This year has been extra-challenging, to say the least. And while we still may have a ways to go before things are “normal” again, we have had time to adjust and stabilize to a certain degree over the last 10 months and things seem more hopeful with the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine. I, for one, am optimistic that there’s a light at the end of what has seemed to be an interminably long tunnel.

Last weekend I visited the city of Denver, CO, where a few of my family members live, and we had a wonderful weekend visit.

As a specialist in the treatment of anxiety disorders the past four years, I have seen a lot of anxious individuals. 

After reading a few of my colleagues’ recent blogs, I was compelled to continue the theme of focusing on the new year in 2019, although with a different outlook. As others mentioned, it is a common expectation to set personal goals at the beginning of each year and attempt to reach those by the end of December.

As a therapist who works with predominately adolescents, I have recently heard this statement in my office:  “I really don’t know who I am or what my purpose is.”