Happy New Year!!

I hope the new year is treating you amazingly well. In 2016, I toasted welcomed 2017 with strangers. I remember walking to a bar, sitting there 20 minutes before the new year. Toasting and counting down with faces I will never see again, chugging my complimentary champagne which left a bitter taste on my tongue and a few minutes later, I was on my way home.

This NYE went a little bit differently. I had a pregame dinner with my sis, Flo and Jess where this fabulous pictures were taken. Toasted to an amazing 2017 and the lessons. I am forever grateful for having Flo in my life. She is an amazing support system, she listens, she chimes in when she needs to, encourages, the list is endless. I more than blessed to call her my sister. We later stopped by friend Christina’s for more merry making. Dancing, a few drinks being tilted, and an epic countdown. I was watching the ball drop on Times Square and my goodness, major kudos to those folks  out there. The temperatures in New York are beyond frigid. Walking don the block is enough to make you an ice cube and we know there can only be one.

New. Just saying the word out loud is enough to make you excited. We get thrilled about new things. New shoes, new house, new adventures,new clothes, new dishes, new workout clothes, new day, and of course the new year.

New gives us a chance to start over, to freshen thing sup, to another chance, it’s another opportunity to begin.

Last year I jump started a business that did not even take off the runway. That plane just failed to take off. There was jet engine fuel, the systems seemed a-ok but nope nothing. Stuck on the ground. It was frustrating, somewhat depressing, disheartening, and at times it made me question a lot of things. Remember my post on the WHY? . I was just scratching the surface. I did not talk about it at the time, and I only mentioned it to my closest and dearest friends. When such things happen (mistakes and failures)  it’s easier to focus on the negative and I like any normal human being found myself drowning in it.

It took a lot of talking and gyming and positive self-talk to get out of the funk. Mistakes are there to teach you a lesson. The past few blogs I mentioned failing forward. That’s the only way you learn. If I never attempted to start the business, I would never have known, never have learnt and I would still be where I was. I am taking that opportunity to do things differently. It gave me the courage to say it’s ok, fumbling and making mistakes is a huge part of life. That should not deter me or stop me from my goal. It made me grateful and also opened me up to the lessons. What was this trying to teach me? It was a poignant moment for me. A deep ah –ha!

If anyone who had failed stopped there would be no light bulbs, no Disney, no Michael Jordan, no movies, no new products, nothing!

So as we usher the new year. May you fail forward and continue learning from your mistakes. That is the only way you know you tried. You went for it. You gave it a go. And before you TRIUMPH, there will be many lessons that will get you there. If you only TRY! Hence, TRIUMPH.

I am a sucker for beautiful words and Nail Gaiman, author and film writer wrote this soo well in 2012 and should ring true 6 years later.

"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever."
― Neil Gaiman

Happy 2018 my friends!!