What Would Bring You Alive in 2024?

Going From Average Energy to Grabbing Hold of Life with a Smile on Your Face

I would call 2023 a recovery year for me. It was post-pandemic, post my Dad and father-in-law’s deaths in 2022, and post international travel restrictions. I regained my footing by:

• Exploring the topic of aging well, hence the blog
• Reaching out to family and friends and
• Taking 2 major trips (one to Canada’s east coast and one to Asia).

The question I am asking now is, what do I really want in 2024?

Is there something I want to do more of, do less of, or change it up completely?

I would imagine most people can relate to the post-pandemic questions, as it sure tossed us around for three years.

From the aging well blog from last year, I did learn quite a bit about myself with my monthly experiments and with your support I gained my strength back.

So, what did I learn?

1. Health and my relationship with ‘A’ are my number 1 priorities

I realized after walking around in circles with a heavy backpack in Bangkok at 35 degrees Celsius and high humidity, this past December, if I do not have my health, there is no way I could have walked around for that long with the load in the heat.

Health is so important!

You may be asking why I was walking around in circles in the first place… well… the taxi driver after saying he knew where the airport hotel was drove for miles out of the way of where we should be and then drove around for another half hour back to the neighborhood where the hotel was located and then dropped us off at a temple. (I think it was a scam).

Anyways, we got out and tried to make our way back to the street, but it turned out we had to go through a small passage by a canal to get to our hotel. We had a lot of local kids trying to help us, but that did not work. And then, finally, after an hour or so, ‘A’ turned on our very expensive roaming cell package to get a map.

It is all an adventure!

And being with ‘A’ on our travels, at home kicking back or working on consulting projects is an absolute pleasure. I want to continue to grow in my relationship with ‘A’ and keep doing things we enjoy.

2. Having trips with physical exercise either hiking, biking or walking really makes me feel good and I want to do even more of this.

   

3. I really want to give back in some way, even more so than I am doing now. What form that is going to take, I am not sure, but I am really interested in helping seniors.

4. I need a creative outlet and this blog has been a source of inspiration to me.

5. I enjoy learning on topics of interest and I would like to develop a program to help others with the knowledge I gain.

At the very start of this year in writing these aging well blogs, I had researched a definition of wellness and one of the experts stated:

Although it always includes striving for health, it’s more about living life fully, and is “a lifestyle and a personalized approach to living life in a way that… allows you to become the best kind of person that your potential, circumstances, and fate will allow”.

For 2024, I want to build on this statement even more in becoming ‘the best kind of person that my potential, circumstances and fate will allow’.

I think this is my vision statement and now I have to get busy with setting some goals and plans to implement. I always wanted to have a life mission or vision and it finally clicked today that there was a reason why this statement resonated so much with me at the start of 2023.

I finally got it!

If I live by my values, this will connect up with becoming the best kind of person that my potential, circumstances and fate will allow.

If I say I value something and then I do not pursue it or live it, life starts to lose meaning. I need to keep exploring, what is important to me and how do I want to spend my time?

What about you? Did any of the topics on aging well resonate with you?

Or did the pandemic or the death of a loved one change or enhance some of your views on living the best possible life?

Let me know. I would love to hear your feedback.

Wishing all of you good health, love, and prosperity for 2024.

Happy New Year!