It’s become custom for me to write a blog at the end of the year and to ask the question, “am I better off than I was a year ago?”  Usually I cannot answer that question and I say that in some ways I am better off and in some ways I am not. This year, I’m going to change that up a bit and say, YES I am better off than I was a year ago. I certainly did not accomplish every single thing I set out to accomplish in 2012, but I did accomplish a great deal of them.

In my blog from September 5th I went into detail about the 5k race that I ran with my sister. And that still stands out as one of the proudest accomplishments of my life, let alone 2012. But again, one of the things that I’m most proud from that race was that I set a SPECIFIC goal and I accomplished it. In 2013, I very well may do another race. Who knows, maybe I’ll do more than just one race. We shall see.

As far as my financial situation goes. I still have debt, but here is why I’ll tell you that I AM better off than I was a year ago. I can tell you all now that without any question, I will have ZERO credit card debt within months. In no more than SIX MONTHS from now, it will all be gone. It could be half as long as that. The amount of possibilities that leaves me with is mind-blowing to me. It really is. To have a completely fresh start financially doesn’t seem real to me. But I’ll wait a few months to get into that. I just know it’ll be one of the most significant days of my life, so far.

My social life is no worse off than it was a year ago. In fact, I would say it’s a bit better. I’ve definitely made a few more friends and gotten closer to some people that were only acquaintances before. And both of those things are good things.

While on the subject of “good things,” let me talk about DDP Yoga. It was started by former pro-wrestler, Diamond Dallas Page and at one point his catch phrase was “that’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.” Having been doing DDP Yoga since May, I can tell you, it’s a GOOD thing. I started off by doing it a few times a week before I started following a specific 13 week plan in the book it came with. And now I’m making my own plan for it. I came up with a plan for December and did not miss a single day of it. I did (at least) one routine every day for the month, and it culminated in me finally getting to the most difficult routine on any of the DDP Yoga discs. Once again, I set a goal and I accomplished it. And this goal, like my race goal, betters me inspires me to do even more.

In last year’s year end blog I talked about obstacles in my way and my desire to move past them. I moved past as many of them as I could. As it turns out, some of them are not movable. But in those cases, I’ve learned to go around them or re-evaluate the situation to the best of my ability. Regardless of whether I got past them or not, I have no regrets to how I handled any of it.

A phrase I’ve tried to eliminate from my life is “I can’t.” I don’t want to use that phrase in reference to any event, challenge, or task. I CAN and WILL rise to the challenge. I understand that I still live in a world of “can’t” and there are some people and things that can’t be fixed. But in those cases, there isn’t anything anyone can do other than let them be as they are and move on to the next thing that CAN be done.

Lacuna Coil’s album, “Dark Adrenaline” was ranked #2 in my Album of the Year Countdown. The song “Upsidedown” is likely my favorite song on the album. The main line of the song is “I’m leaving the dark side upside down, laughing at my disaster.” I can relate to that, which I’m sure is why I liked it so much. I did leave my dark side upside down, and I do laugh at my own disaster. But I also smile about it now, since I’ve risen up from the ashes of what I used to be and the hands that were dealt to me.

Very often, these year end blogs are mostly me talking about the issues I had during the year. There’s two big reasons that I’m going with a different approach to this blog. The first is that I had a fairly incident free year. Unlike the previous few years, I did not suffer any life-changing events. And another big reason that I’m not taking this blog in that direction is that I’m just so focused on 2013 right now. I can’t believe how excited I am about the possibilities of things to come in the new year. And again, it’s not just because one year is over. I liked 2012, it’s just that I’m looking to make 2013 my best year yet. I’m quite determined to meet that goal, and I don’t know any reason why I won’t be able to.