Adam Searle » Blog

At last, I’ve figured out what this year will be about!

I recently returned from a week up in noosa, queensland. Awesome holiday, fantastic to get out of sydney and away from everything. It honestly felt strange coming back - distant, like a reconnection to a far away past. I’ll take that as it was a good break away heh.

Best of all, the holiday gave me a lot of time to think. Looking back, really, it was a period of soul discovery. I had a lot of questions to answer, on where I wanted to go witih life, work, friends, morals, fun.. I feel like a lot of my life is under review. Now I feel like its only the beginning of a much longer journey, one I’d like to label: 2007 - the year of soul discovery. I’ve had a few ideas so far on what I need to change, and with my return from sydney, they shall begin straight away. The goal is to feel more positive soul-wise towards the end of the year, to achieve a happier life balance, and generally be happy.

First and foremost, it involves establishing boundaries. I’ve never been good with boundaries - especially with work; it becomes all consuming. I throw myself into it, achieve a great deal, and sacrifice a lot of ‘what I could be doing otherwise’ stuff. Time to myself is important; time to reflect, time to think, time to just chill and decompress. The main boundary I’ll be setting is with work - moving to a more 9-5 style regiment, where I’m not working all day and all night.

Second is putting more time into pursuing things that interest me. A large slice in this is relationships, others include things I find interesting that really could do with more time. I wouldn’t mind getting back into playing music, I wouldn’t mind kayaking more (got kind of addicted to that while at noosa)

Third is putting my own interests at a higher priority. Sometimes I stretch myself too far in doing favours or excess in work - so this is kind of like point 1. Putting my own wellbeing at a higher priority level. Taking care of my health more - putting more effort into taking strides forward with that. Protecting the feel good

Fourth is not holding back in letting my opinions and values be known. Too often when I know someone will have a significant difference in feeling on opinion or value to mine, I don’t push the point. Its important to stand up to what you believe in, so I aim to do more of that

Some things have lost priority or been postponed. Car aspirations are now on extended hold. Travel plans I think now will likewise be looked at next year. My general plan is to establish a comfortable course for this year, follow it and enjoy, and then next year go overseas for an extended period and reconsider where I am and what I want. That’ll be a huge step - potentially a change in job direction, and a whole lot of new experiences. If this is the year of soul discovery, next year will be the year of soul reaction.

As an aside, last years goal was extremely successful - the year of risk. Getting into the working world was a big step. Freelancing was great. Teaching was a huge growth demonstrative experience. Being involved in starting a company and really pushing myself forward with that was a huge opportunity and step. Staying true to my goal of meeting new people was also achieved. If this year can succeed as much as last year did, I’ll be overjoyed

And so the year of soul begins..