{"id":183,"date":"2014-11-17T19:06:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T19:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=183"},"modified":"2022-09-20T19:15:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T19:15:24","slug":"2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/?p=183","title":{"rendered":"2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify\">Every year I take this time to reflect, give sincere thanks to those who love me, and plan the next year of my life. For those around last year (and that took to time to read my post) the narrative can be long and as always, I won\u2019t be mad if you don\u2019t make it to the end!<br><br>This past year I continued the path of being physically better, faster and stronger by challenging myself. I don\u2019t post every time I go to the gym but most of the time I do because it keeps me focused and it\u2019s nice to have a cheering section. For those of you keeping track I am down 52 lbs., that\u2019s another 15 from this time last year! The past year I have fought the injury bug and won, Achilles, hamstring and \u201cpump bump\u201d could not stop me <em><u>smile emoticon<\/u><\/em>. Officially, I blew away my goal but now I have a new one so stay tuned!<br><br>My next year will be focused on fulfillment, what makes me truly happy, I have found that instead of wholesale changes in life it is better to compartmentalize different facets in life and work on them one at a time. Health was first for me because I believe that in order to tackle the other aspects of life it is way easier when you have the energy to do it. I have learned over the past year how important it is to find the joy; a lot of us are guilty of going through the motions of life without really enjoying the journey. We find ourselves on the hamster wheel and just keep going because that\u2019s what we have always done. This year I am (and have already started) challenging myself to get off the damn wheel and break free of the mundane and that means sometimes being uncomfortable with change. I heard Simon T. Bailey a motivational speaker give an address at a breakfast in Orlando, and have become a big fan, say \u201c\u2026you want to be in a place where you are celebrated and not just tolerated.\u201d Those are the places that I am going to be!<br><br>Ok, for those who have lost interest or don\u2019t really care stop here\u00a0<em><u>wink emoticon<\/u><\/em><br><br>For those of you in my circle, the roller-coaster will continue, hang on if you can! Please remember that the changes in the next year are not about you (it\u2019s my birthday and I can say that). The path that I am on is directed by God but comes from me first asking him to \u201corder my steps\u201d and then most importantly listening to Him when he tells me which way to go instead of rebelling or doing what other people want\/need me to do. If you try to do the right things by other people and it leaves you unfulfilled and without joy, you are not following the steps He has ordered\u2026<br><br>If you read last year\u2019s missive I talked about bringing back the old me and to be honest there were times this year where I allowed that guy to be muted (especially in my career) and I am pissed at me for that, I\u2019ll kick my own butt later. I\u2019m happier being outspoken, confident (over) and speaking my mind so this next year I plan on speaking my mind and if you are in my way it\u2019s not personal but if I have to run you over to get to my joy, I will.<br><br>As always, if you got to the end of this don\u2019t worry about getting me a gift\u2026you just did!<br><br>Tracey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every year I take this time to reflect, give sincere thanks to those who love me, and plan the next year of my life&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blackmanwrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}