7 Life Lessons for the New Year

A new year can bring the promise of positive change, new beginnings and opportunities for something different.  As 2015 approaches, I wanted to share 7 life lessons from the reward of raising a fully dependent special needs child.  I hope that maybe some of these will provide inspiration for you for a great 2015.

1. A path to a happier life can start by not focusing on yourself too much. It’s amazing how fast you can forgot about your personal anxieties and issues when you start focusing on the needs of others.  Especially when those needs make your own look so small.
2. Living in the past is focusing on what has happened to you. Living for the future is taking what has happened and using that to positively change what is inside of you.
3. There is little good that will come from comparing yourself or your situation to anyone else. A focus on what could be takes away from what can be.
4. I read this once and it strongly resonated with me – we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their behaviors. We don’t see our behaviors and others don’t see our intentions. Whether with a child, friend or colleague, creating a higher level of understanding means bridging these two.
5. From John Maxwell, “don’t avoid the immediate price tag of change, if you do, you will pay the ultimate price of never improving.”
6. Take some time to think about what core values you want to have, then spend the rest of your life trying to live them.
7. Life is not about limitations, not about the things you can’t do – life is about possibilities, it’s OK to be different; it’s OK to do things in an unconventional way because in the end, it’s all about the things you CAN do to inspire and touch the lives of others.

Image courtesy of Idea go at FreeDigitalPhotos.net