Wow!

What a journey I've been on this year. Scroll down this blog and you can see some of my progress in the last nine months. It's really remarkable to reflect on where I've been - and astounding to think about how much more I can accomplish in 2009.

This evening, I will be sitting down with my notebook, a favorite pen, and a beautiful candle. After listing my top 25 accomplishments of 2008, I plan to read each one aloud three times. When the sound of the last one has faded, I'll blow out the candle, grab a red pen, and immediately write down 10 goals for 2009.

Everywhere you turn these days, people are promising to help you make 2009 "the best year ever." I'm not aiming for that. For me - and for my team - 2009 will be the best year YET.

Happy holidays everyone.

Yes, I'm positive.

I've been working on gratitude. Every day, as soon as I'm awake enough to know I'm not asleep, I start thinking about things I'm grateful for. When I take a walk or have a moment between tasks, I'll fill the time by saying what I'm grateful for. Mostly I'm grateful that I've learned to be grateful - especially in these wacky times we're living in, it helps me to stay centered in my life, reminds me that here, in Elaine-Land, everything is just fine. Perfect, even. Awesome.

I guess it's been working pretty well, because yesterday I was rendered momentarily speechless when an interviewer asked me, "What do you hate about [the subject we were discussing]?"

What do I hate? It was like I'd forgotten what the word meant. And that was a pretty amazing thing to realize. Still, I had to answer the question...but it took me a good minute to come up with something. And in the end, it wasn't really something I hate, more like something that I allow to annoy me from time to time.

Still, it was a good experience for me. I learned that I really have internalized this gratitude thing. Yes, I'm positive.