As I sit down to write this article, it is mid-January in North Dakota, and things are like one would expect – icy, snowy, below zero wind chills, and the road to the end of winter seems long in a lot of ways, although I know when I look back, it will feel like it went fast. I’ve heard it said “The days are long, but the years are short,” and it’s certainly been true for me.
I’ve been thinking about New Year’s resolutions. I don’t truly make resolutions, but I do often make a renewed effort to improve myself after all the Christmas overindulging. I also like to ponder the events of the previous year.
2017 started out rather badly for me personally. I’m not going to go into details, but if someone had told me in January 2017 that I would be in the mental place I am now, in January 2018, I would not have believed it. The pivotal thing I did that changed my course was I began to focus on taking care of myself physically, through a series of very small adjustments. The initial reason I started this was a desperate desire to feel better physically. Even while a lot of craziness was going on in my family, I started to make exercise and healthier eating a top priority, no matter what everyone else was doing. I still have much work to do and I know exercise and healthy eating will always be areas I struggle with, but it’s truly amazing to me how just one or two seemingly small changes somehow eventually gave me the courage and strength to take a stand in one other area in particular, and the domino effect has truly been wonderful, not just on my health and in my family, but in other areas of my life, including professionally.
Neale Donald Walsch said “Life Begins at the End of your Comfort Zone.” One small thing I decided to do in 2017 that was totally outside my comfort zone was agreeing to serve as president of WDALA. I see myself as a good team player, but not usually as captain of the team. I’m not the most organized person in the world, and there are many areas in which I think I could and should improve. I have always wanted to improve my “people skills,” and the truth is the only way I will improve that is by doing new things, meeting and associating with new people, and pushing the fear aside and taking chances.
Maybe you are reading this and thinking, “I can’t do anything great. I don’t have time, I’m already pulled in a million different directions.” I feel the same way, but maybe if you can’t do anything great, you can do something small in a great way. I am reading a book by Melanie Shankle called “Church of the Small Things.” Some of you probably know her works, but I had never heard of her and I recently came upon the book at the library by accident. It has a positive, comical, uplifting message, which is that the small things in life really are the big things. I encourage you to make one small change somewhere in your life – maybe it’s to exercise more, to be a better friend, to volunteer somewhere, or to become more active in WDALA. And maybe you, too, will find that one small thing can put you in a totally new direction. My wish is that 2018 will be a great year for me and for all of you
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Afton J. Basden, CP
WDALA President