With a new year just around the corner, we all take time and reflect on the year we had.   Did we have passion for what we did?  Did we have an impact in the lives of others?  Did we get into the shape we said we would when we made that new years resolution?  Did we accomplish the goals we set forth to achieve?  And that is where I begin… on achieving the goals we set forth for our selves.

I am going to start with saying 2011 was not one of my best years, physically or emotionally.  Many of you could read between the lines and see that my 2011 was a struggle.  My year saw a change of jobs, many frustrations and that played on my emotional state.  I was a very negative person in 2011.  For some reason in 2011 I had this notion I was owed something because I put in all this “hard work”.  That hard work is what has gotten me so far already.  And because those things that were “owed” to me did not come, I became more jaded; more negative.  I know that the book, “The Secret” has brought this idea of attraction into light, but there is something to the notion.  We do attract negative situations if we have negative thoughts.  I am proof.  I was a cocky, negative person all year, and 2011 was one of the hardest years I have endured.

We set forth these goals, and feel that they should come not long after.   Maybe that “goal” is not set out in the master plan.   The grand scheme of your life may not include that goal.  I believe things do happen for a purpose.  I am going to boldly say you and I are owed nothing for the work we put in.  We EARN everything.  I don’t know where my sense of entitlement came from because it is a quality I do not admire in others, but for some reason it appeared in 2011.  It will not be here in 2012, I guarantee that.  Growing up in a hard working Ukrainian community like Sandy Lake, Manitoba, I learned that hard work pays off.  The people who live and work there are living proof.  The people who built that community are proof.  Once again, you are owed nothing; you earn everything, that is the way I was raised.

I also look at the things I felt I was “owed”.  Maybe they are not in the master plan, and maybe they are… just not right now.  Either way, I look and realize all the negative energy that was place forth was obviously not worth the time of the worry.  I spent a year looking at what I wanted and not what I had.  We all do.  Do you have people who love you, are your bills paid, do you have a place to sleep, and do you have food in the fridge?  Look around; you and I have those things.  We also have health.   And it pains me to think of those who do not.  I know the days that I feel “shitty”, and so do you.  I am in good health and could not imagine how those who are in far worse health, feel on their best day, never mind the “shitty” days.  It took to the end of 2011 to realize I am doing well.  I am not proud of 2011 for who I was, but I know that 2012 and each year after cannot be much worse emotionally.  Reflect on the year, be proud of you accomplishment, be proud of where you have come from and focus on a positive start to 2012.

Yours in health and performance,

Jeff Osadec, MKin, CEP, CSCS