I’m reflecting on 2014, a year of immense change for me. Very early in the year I made some decisions that involved a huge amount of courage,  which led to a happiness and joy I’d never experienced before in my life. As we look ahead to a new year, I offer some words of encouragement and inspiration.

• Take a leap of faith. You are stronger and more capable than you realize.
• Instead of running away from your fears, turn around and face them head on. Get out of the safety of your comfort zone and embrace your fears. It will lead you to incredible growth, self-discovery and fulfillment.
• Let go of worry. Just let it go. There is so much we cannot control, yet we make ourselves sick worrying about it. Take care of yourself and let the Universe take care of the rest.
• Listen to that teeny tiny voice in the back of your head that you know in the depths of your soul speaks the truth.

I am about to enter the new year and undertake another adventure. To take a bigger, longer leap of faith. Instead of a relatively short, 3-month adventure, in which I visited many friends and family and traveled to warm, sunny, lush and inviting places, I am about to leave my comfort zone and move to a city in which I know absolutely no one. In the middle of my least favorite season, to a city and state where the cold and snow of that season is magnified. For perhaps twice as long as I was away this summer.

Why?

Because the teeny tiny voice in my head, the little voice that I never even realized was there until this past year, urges me to. It encourages me to continue to face my fears, to leave my familiar home and friends and surroundings and go to the place that beckons my soul. To go to that magnificent state with the immense sky and write about all I have learned so that I can help others realize that yes, you can change your life for the better, and that you, and you alone, are in the driver’s seat of your life, and that you can and will find happiness.

I will admit that I’m more than just a bit scared. But I’ve spent too much of my life giving in to the fear that pulls me back into the safety of doing nothing. For the first time in my life, I choose to believe that I do not have to hitchhike on the back of someone else flying through the air – that I have my own wings that will carry me safely through this next chapter of my life.

I woke up several times in the middle of the night, realizing that I was scared of taking this next step. And that teeny tiny voice spoke to me, loud and clear. “You will be just fine.”

Happy New Year to all of you!