2017 – A Year to Be Bold
Not long ago, I posted on this on Facebook:
“Sitting back acknowledging the wealth and happiness in my life – kind, generous husband, happy, healthy children, beautiful home in the country, a dog that is the personification of joy and a cat who is calming and caring (even if it is only with us and not anyone else), a business that is willing to grow and change as I do, and infinite possibility before me.
Before I make you want to puke with how great my life is, I also want to say I have worries and struggles, fears and hardships, but in this moment, I am not giving them any airtime. And, by refusing that time and energy to them, it is like they no longer exist.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all. My wish is that we all give more time and energy to our blessings than our worries.” End of post.
I then began pondering the second paragraph. “Before I make you want to puke with how great my life is…”
Why does someone expressing blessings and good fortune make us want to puke? Shouldn’t this make us feel happy and grateful? Why do we have to downplay our good fortune? Why are we made made to feel wrong for being happy and abundant as if it is selfish or boastful? And why, is there never any issue about people talking about their struggles or criticisms?
It is a bold move to express your gratitude for your amazing life in the face of those who want to bring you down for it. I say, let’s make 2017 the year to be bold and allow people to want to puke at your happiness – if they wish to choose that.
Let’s no longer let the naysayers and negative Nancies dictate the bold expression of happiness, gratitude, and joy. By backing down to their criticisms and making ourselves smaller because of them, we are silently saying they are right, and have power to destroy our good moods. This has to stop.
One day last year, my ten year old daughter came home school saying that some older kids were trying to put her down, asking her with contempt, “Why are you so happy?” as if her happiness was not cool, but a disease that needed to be eradicated. Her response to them was priceless. She said in all seriousness, “I don’t understand why you think my being happy is bad? Why wouldn’t you want me to be happy? Wouldn’t you rather be happy than unhappy?” The older girls were left speechless and while they may have still clung to their misery as a badge of honor, they no longer bothered my daughter knowing that they were never going to squash the priceless commodity she carries – joy.
So please, feel free to speak out loud about blessings and miracles. Feel free to exude the joy that is desperately trying to be seen and heard that is within you. Let’s make 2017 the year of bold and brash joy, enthusiasm, happiness, and kindness. Let’s no longer pull ourselves down to make others feel more comfortable in their misery. It is time to make misery the most uncomfortable choice we’ve ever made. It is time to expose misery as the real disease that needs to be eradicated.
I have lived a lot of my life either with others in contempt for expressing the joy within me or in fear to express it for the judgments that will be hurled my way. I’m done. I’m done pretending that struggle is noble. I’m done believing I need to make things right by pointing out what’s wrong. I’m done trying to blend in with the mediocrity and homogenous blah-dom others have fallen into so I can fit in. And I invite you to boldly step out with me with reckless abandon.
So here’s my proclamation for a new year:
I am JOYFUL. I am MAGICAL. I am SILLY. I am UNREALISTIC. I am this reality’s GREATEST NIGHTMARE and this world’s GREATEST DREAM. I am BOLD and I am UNSTOPPABLE.
Who’s with me?
Never be afraid to exude the enthusiasm that lives within you. Let this be the year you let it all out.
Wishing you a bold, brash, and beautiful 2017. Happy New Year everyone!
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