Hold Onto Your Shorts, January | Beach Sunset Photography / by Rachel Abrahams

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My theme for this month of January? Hold onto your shorts.

I thought with the end of the Holidays, the new year would start off allowing me to eeeaaasseee on down the road like The Wiz......apparently not. It has been fast and furious both at work and with life at home. I typically fall into bed like a sack of potatoes and I'm asleep. It's ok though. I am not ashamed in admitting I just put my Christmas tree away. Well, it's now in it's box which has yet to make it to the garage. That's pretty much away, right?

Why so blase about this? Well, I spent most of last year learning how to just chill the eff out about silly things. I worked really hard on letting go of the things that I just have no control over and taking a stand on the things I can. So, the naked Christmas tree standing in my living room staring at me for most of January? I decided it could wait. Instead, I focused on working my new goals this year both personally and professionally. Have I maintained them? No, I already dropped the ball but that's ok. I just try, try again.

I decided to start a daily gratitude journal. Just a little something to remind me when I am feeling all dramatic and nobody loves me (so I'm gonna eat some worms) I can refer to this and enjoy those things that make me feel grateful. I wrote in it for 5 days and then it's sat dormant in my purse the remainder of the month. It's cool. I'll re-start soon. Maybe even tonight? My hope (and I already started it) is to convert it into a smash book. I used to love scrapbooking and this is a way chill version with a lot less rules. Totally more my style.

I also realized the amount of books I read last year was just abysmal so I went on Goodreads, upped my book challenge, and have already read 2 books this month. Remember that Christmas Tree in my living room? It's been my book reading buddy. Read a book or put away the tree? Yeah, there's no question there.

As for this year? I decided I want to live a lot more positively. My daily question I now ask myself is did I make someone happy, help someone out, reach out to someone I haven't spoken to in awhile, and/or let someone know how special they are to me? If I can say yes to even one, it's been a great day. I've been doing this for awhile though - probably since last August - and it's been fantastic.

So yeah, January is almost over and I am just now getting a blog post out but, honestly, I kept getting really stuck on a topic and after my long days I would stare at the computer to inevitably decide sleep was more important. As for the topic, I finally went with honesty. I've been told that's the best policy.

Notice how I put lovely beach sunset photos in between my ramblings? I figured I'd give everyone the choice to:

A) Look at the pretty pictures

B) Read the randomness or

C) Do both and join my Awesome Possum Club. I should get around to making a sticker for that.

Anyone else working on personal/professional goals? Have you kept them going smoothly or randomly like me? Should I mention Floridians are complaining about 50 degrees as being cold while everyone else is experiencing snowpocalypse? Who else out there was annoyed at how soon they had pukey pink Valentine's stuff up in stores?