Some Reflections on 2013

The first IWSG blog post of the year! Welcome 2014 participants and all those who aren't! If you'd like to check out the other blogs joining me on this day, click on this link...

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Many things happened that made 2013 a challenging year, the worst of which was my father dying, but I don’t want to go into the negatives here. I will write about three wonderful things that happened. Aliénor P.K. Wight was born in February to my cousin and god daughter! She is beautiful and growing in our hearts and eyes. Going to see our daughter, Marjorie, in Ohio for Fourth of July and meeting her “new” family was amazing. We feel good knowing she has a lovely support group up there in the cold lands! For me professionally, November’s overwhelmingly successful stint with NaNoWriMo was a true gift. I felt I found my true writer when NaNoWriMo focused me and gave me direction. I think realizing that I actually gave myself direction and followed through with what the month offered, was the biggest plus of the year when it comes to my career.

I’m really ready to move on from 2013, to learn what I am capable of in 2014. I am reading “World War Z” right now and read something that stuck with me. A character in the novel, Breckinridge Scott says, “The only rule that ever made sense to me I learned from a history, not an economics, professor at Wharton. ‘Fear,’ he used to say, ‘fear is the most valuable commodity in the universe. …Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal…’”

I want to use my fears as catalysts instead of inhibitors in my career and personal life. I don’t want to be “ruled” by it, letting it take away my self-worth, my confidence. I’ve done that for far too long. My commitment to myself and my family is to strive to be totally engaged in my self-motivation and make this the best year ever for me, not only in sales, but in my familial and emotional life as well.