As many of you know, this is always one of my most highly anticipated pieces every single year. Some start reaching out ahead of December to learn when I will share my most important lessons of the year. Well, the wait is over and I am ready to share some of the most important insights that I have gained in 2022. This has truly been the greatest year of my life. I have learned so much and grown so much as a person. I am in a season in my life where I am seeing the rewards of years of hard work and commitment. Ultimately, I am seeing my dreams realized and it is an unexplainable feeling. I hope these insights will inspire you and empower you to assess your year and leverage your experiences for growth, development, and advancement. May you dare to resolve all unfinished business and finish this year strong!
- You have to choose yourself first. While this is not a new lesson for me, it is a lesson that I had to reapply to my life in 2022. This was an incredibly busy year for me and I had so many commitments to keep. However, in the hustle and bustle of a busy life, you cannot forget to choose yourself first. In other words, you have to prioritize your joy, peace, health, wholeness, and well-being. At one point in 2022, I found myself on the brink of burnout. I was exhausted, more projects were piling up and I just felt out of sync. At that point, I had to make the quality decision to choose myself first. At the end of the day, the projects will still be there, and the appointments will still be there but you will not always be there. What am I trying to say? Life is fleeting and if we are not careful we will fill our calendars without ever fulfilling our callings. When life gets frantic and chaotic, I want to challenge you to slow down and find your center again. If you do not put yourself first, then you will always come last to everything else in your life. If you do not see yourself as important, then the world around you will only view you as an option. Part of reclaiming your personal power is making the nonnegotiable decision to choose yourself first.
- You should never apologize for living an authentic life. Several times in 2022 I found myself in situations where I felt the pressure to dumb down who I was in order to avoid disturbing the peace or disrupting what others consider the status quo. However, I remember in that moment reminding myself that I must always live true to who I am and never deviate from that truth. As a result, I made a decision that it was time to dismiss some relationships from my life. Anything that puts pressure on me to shrink who I am and become a second-rate version of myself is something that does not belong in my life. As you do the inner work, you understand that boundaries will help you establish what belongs in your life and what should be barred from your life. It was a powerful moment of awareness that empowered me to dismiss those that did not discern my difference. You will never benefit the world by blending in. Your boldness to blend out will open doors for you and give you access to rooms you never imagined you could enter. What the world needs is people that will have the audacity to live every waking moment of their lives unapologetically authentic.
- Surround yourself with people that perceive your value. The landscape of my relationships really changed in 2022. This year I saw some people for who they truly were and I believed them. However, I did not just stop at believing them I gave them the gift of goodbye. The gift of goodbye is when you realize that some people are good for where you have been but they are not good for who you are becoming. As I waved goodbye to the old, I waved hello to new meaningful, and synergistic relationships in my life. These relationships are significant in my life because they see me, understand me, and perceive my value. In other words, I never feel pressure to shrink who I am or to lower my standards. I embraced relationships that celebrated me, undergirded me, and believed in me even in moments when I did not believe in myself. 2022 was the year that I aligned with relationships that accommodated my future and disconnected from relationships that linked me to the past. You must make the decision to associate higher. Your associations not only determine how high you go in life. Your associations ultimately determine whether or not you honor the seed of your potential. You do not need relationships that pacify your passivity. Instead, you need relationships that stretch you and steer you in the direction of greatness.
- You must stop postponing joy to some distant date in the future. While I have a lot more lessons I could share with you from 2022, I feel that this one is the most important one of them all. 2022 was a big year for me and I hit some big goals in my personal and professional life. While I should have been excited and overjoyed at the results I was experiencing, I found myself becoming discontent and almost disgusted with myself. It was bewildering to me because I should have been genuinely happy and proud of what I had accomplished. Then one day I was writing and thinking about my life and I wrote down that ingratitude is the thief of contentment. It is almost as if that sentence exploded on the inside of me. For the first time in a long time, I realized that I had stopped enjoying the journey. I am doing all the things that I once dreamed of doing in my life. However, instead of stopping to appreciate the journey my mind was already planning and strategizing for all the next steps. As a result, I kept telling myself that I will be satisfied when I hit another goal or reach another milestone. With each goal met and milestone reached I continued to postpone my joy to some distant date in the future. That day, I made the decision that I was not going to delay joy anymore in my life. First of all, I am choosing to have joy no matter the circumstances or conditions in my life. Secondly, I am choosing to live every day of my life with a grateful heart because that makes me a magnet for manifestation. Most of all, I am embracing a life of significance through simplification. I am going to squeeze every second out of every day. I am going to slow down, enjoy the journey and celebrate each victory along the way. You alone choose and create the joy of your life. Do not postpone your joy another day. Start choosing joy in every moment and soon you will start living fulfilled and experiencing contentment.
