Is this thing on?

Hi!  Welcome to MAXOUThappy.  I feel like a first blog post is always going to be kind of an awkward leap, but here it is.  I started really thinking about my life, and life in general, a few months ago.  Very long story short, I was kind of in a dark and strange place, and I felt like I had really lost myself over the last few years.  I know what my values are, I know what I want out of life…but I hadn’t really checked in with myself in a while.  What do I like?  What are my hobbies?  Have they changed?  Have I changed?  What are my short-term, long-term, and visionary goals?  All of this was combined with feeling like I was being a big say-er, and not a big do-er.  I have always talked a lot of noise about writing a book, writing a blog, losing weight, being fit, doing this or that, and I finally realized that I was the only person who was standing in my way.  Sounds simple, right?  But it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I thought back to all the times I’ve ‘started fresh’ and tried to get on board with something new, and then it slowly but surely trickled away…and a song lyric popped into my head, as they tend to do:  It’s time to begin, isn’t it?  I deserve to just do me, and not worry about anything or anyone else.  This is my journey, it’s my life, these are my goals…so I decided to ‘start fresh’ and never stop this time.    

I felt like I had made a lot of excuses for myself, as we all do – and I’m not trying to put myself down here; it’s just the human condition.  The “I’m too busy”s and the “I’ll get to it later”s just pile up and before you know it, you have let yourself down and broken promise after promise to yourself…and as silly as that sounds, you should be the last person you break a promise to!

I made a pact with myself to be more of a do-er.  Try new things.  Put myself out there.  Be brave.  Try being more spontaneous and focus daily on being a happy and positive person.  Get in tune with myself again.  I got started on a lot of things I want to follow through on.  I started practicing yoga, I focused on being active, spending more time with myself, journaling…I made time for reading again, I began writing an e-Book about teaching with a coworker, I stopped being so crazy about calculating meals and calories and I drank some a lot of wine and ate some a good bit of delicious food without feeling guilty about it.  I started to seek out a really balanced life in all areas.  I made a huge career decision to go back to the classroom.  Finally, I enlisted the help of a sweet friend to create my logo and signature for this blog, and after several geeky and alliteration-heavy blogging brainstorm sessions, my lovely sister helped me find the perfect name for what you are reading now.

I watched a fabulously feel-good documentary called Finding Joe about the hero’s journey in literature and film…it’s all about going for what you believe in and following your dreams, even when you are afraid.  When you ‘slay your dragons,’ the film says, you have to face the deepest parts of yourself.  Once you can accept them, and even appreciate them, you gain the courage to move past your fears and “follow your bliss.”  Isn’t that what we all want?  To find our bliss – to be content in our lives and to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be.  Some people stay where it’s safe and comfortable so they never have to fail or feel pain…but that sounds like a cop out to me.  The day is today; the time is now.  If you wait until you’re ready for something, you won’t ever get wherever it is you are hoping to go.  The more times we fall, the more times we get back up, the closer we get to finding our bliss.  I have taken some pretty big leaps in the last little bit of my life, and it is scary as hell, but I also can’t think of a time when I have ever felt more alive or excited for what’s coming.

So…what does MAXOUThappy mean?  It means never settling for second best, never taking what you don’t deserve, and above all, maximizing every single aspect of your life – friendships, romance, fitness, health, work, travel, whatever it may be.  MAXOUThappy is about living and loving your life, but most importantly, loving yourself, because we are all enough.  Life is short, and we’ve only got one…we better live it to the max.