As we approach the end of the year, like most of you, I am taking inventory in the past year and doing some reflecting on what happened this year. This is the first of many posts where I reflect on 2023 as a whole and explore what went on, what my favorite parts were, what my take aways were and what I hope for 2024.
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I feel that A LOT of what happened in 2023, I wasn’t expecting and I’ve had a lot of wake up calls that I didn’t answer. It wasn’t until November when I had a really SERIOUS wake up call, that I finally took them seriously and started thinking “Wait! Maybe these are all connected and something is trying to show me something important” These wake up calls shook me to the core, made me re-evaluate what I’ve been doing and forced me to make some changes.
My wake up calls this year, listed in no particular order:
“I’m disappointed in you”
Heart rate of 28
Realization that my fairytale is NOT what I wanted
People not understanding what my family means to me
Being stood up/ghosted in dating
Hitting a deer
“I honestly didn’t think you would actually leave”
I entered 2023 so hopeful and so ready for good things to happen after a weird 2022. While good things did happen, other things happened too that in hindsight, were pivotal. These wake up calls on their own were BIG things; when you group them all together, you realize, they were all trying to tell you something.
I think for me, my biggest wake up call was last month, when I was in the hospital and my heart rate dropped to 28 beats per minute. Normally my heart rate is on average between 75-85, to have my heart rate drop to 28 due to Sepsis was eye opening.
After I started feeling better, I started thinking about life and what has transpired over the past year or so and the above wake up calls kept coming to the forefront of my mind and I started to connect the dots, maybe I need to change somethings in my life. My life wasn’t terrible but these seemingly small, unconnected things that happened made me think and when I grouped them all together, I knew something had to change.
Going forward, I am making small changes to my life and I am hoping for the best. I am so thankful for these wake up calls and getting myself back on track. Who knows where I would be if these things never happened.
Having a wake up call can be eye opening (pun intended) and I am thankful for these wake up calls. While I am looking forward to 2024, I am going to promise myself to be more vigilant when random things happen, perhaps they are not so random and someone is trying to get my attention.
Have you ever had seemingly random things happen and then you realize “Oh, these things ARE connected?”
[[Big change come from hundreds of tiny steps and they all matter]]
