Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

Happy New Year! Congratulations on making it through 2014.

Like the title of this post suggests, I am NOT a big resolution person. For evidence, check out last year’s edition (there wasn’t one). That doesn’t mean I don’t have goals and dreams. It just means that I try to focus on them as they come up, rather than just at the beginning of the year.

There were certainly things I wanted to accomplish last year. And I did accomplish them. Well, some of them anyway. To be honest, I feel really awful about the things I did not achieve. Worse, in fact, than I feel good about the things I did cross off of my list. I don’t know if that’s healthy or not, but I know it keeps me trying, wanting to do more.

I suppose I shouldn’t forget that some of the things I experienced in the past year were special, and inspiring, and totally unexpected. Guess what? We have now given away 25 medals to Champion Athletes With Diabetes! I’ve gone through my initial order of twenty-five, and it’s time to order more. That’s a good thing, right?

I was also able to travel to Orlando in July for MasterLab, where I learned a lot and expanded my diabetes advocacy brain beyond its previously imagined limits. I was interviewed by one of my local TV stations and by one of Politico’s eHealth Newsletter reporters. I got to speak at a public workshop on interoperability of diabetes devices hosted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. I never saw any of that coming at the beginning of last year.

Still, as I mentioned above, there are things I set out to do that I didn’t accomplish in 2014. That doesn’t mean I’ll never accomplish them. Or that I’ll ever accomplish them. That’s all unknown, until I either do or don’t complete them. But in a way, I like the idea that there is a lot still unknown… about diabetes, about my life, about this blog, about all of you. I love the idea of opening up and exploring the possibilities as we begin the new year.
 
 
In the end, I want to ask myself the same questions I ask a lot of bloggers:

– Are you happy?

– Do you like writing? How does it make you feel? Do you want to keep writing?

– If you could do anything, or write about anything, what would it be?

I also want to remember what I tell many bloggers too:

– Remember the impact you have on others. There is no possible way you can overstate that. Don’t ever sell yourself short.

– What you are doing is not nothing (I know, double negative). Even if it’s just for yourself.
 
 
I hope your 2015 is full of joy and excitement, and most of all, happiness. Last year, my mantra was:

I support you… no conditions.

I hope I’ve lived up to that. I’d like to hang onto that for a while longer, if that’s okay with you. And if I have to come up with something to add to that this year, let it be this:

Everyone is important, and that includes you!

You’re still part of everyone, right? I thought so. Here’s to a spectacular, record-breaking 2015!