- Marta Perrone official blog

Our lives encompass essentials that enter our minds throughout each day. As we enter a new year, it is good to reflect on on 2010 and consider ways to improve in all these areas for the upcoming year. Life is ever evolving, but if we sit still in our minds and actions, then the movement is confined to a small space of little change.

1) Family - your role as it relates to family may mean that you are a wife, husband, daughter, son, mother, father, grandparent and/or more. This relationships you have with family members can at times be the most difficult due to the closeness, expectations and disappointments. Yet, getting each of these relationships "right" is important to feel whole as a person. Some of the biggest blocks we hold emotionally come from unresolved issues with "family". Easier said than done, clearly. My efforts in 2011 will be to have better communication with my closest family members and to try harder to develop relationships with those that are family, but I barely see.

2) Friendships - friends, like family will often disappoint you. The closer the friend, the greater the expectation, and the harder the fall. As in every relationship, it is necessary to cultivate it. This means paying attention to the needs of your friends and trying to be there for them more often. For example, being a good listener, accepting their faults, going out of your way to help them, forgiving them for their mistakes and taking time to see them.

3) Work - whether work means being a homemaker, having a paying job, owning a business or being currently unemployed, we have a responsibility to ourselves to be better at what we do and to work harder to attain success. For a homemaker, it may mean organizing your home or household help better so that it runs smoothly. If you hold a job, you may consider the ways in which you can be a better employee, more valuable to your employer and how you might move up the ladder. It may require that you look at your skills and see ways in which to improve them. A heightened awareness of yourself will help you assess your strengths and weaknesses. Make a list and challenge yourself to learn something new in your job. If you are a business owner, surely there are many ways in which you can increase your profits and create a better service. In today's times, this may be the greatest challenge of all, but we must stay positive and just work a little harder. If you are unemployed, sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring will get you nowhere. You must be proactive every day until you find that job. It may mean re-creating yourself and learning new skills.

4) Finances - learning to put money away is a good thing for everyone to learn no matter the age. If a child can learn to put money in a piggy bank and then deposit the weekly or monthly funds into a savings account, so can an adult learn to make take a dollar and make it two. We all come from different financial positions. Some of us live week to week, month to month or year to year. Some of us are more fortunate and have little financial worries. Either way, we could all learn to save more, spend wisely, allocate funds appropriately and simply be better with our finances.

5) Love - if we don't have that special person in our lives, it is simply lonely and empty. Whether you are married or in a partnership, going through a divorce, seeking a relationship, or have lost someone - love enters and departs, keeping it constant is what we need to remain healthy in our hearts. There are ways to make any romantic relationship better. Seeking romance improves our lives. It makes you feel better and happier. I know this to be true being recently married to the love of my life. It wasn't like this always, but I never gave up and now I have it.

6) Goals - without them we simply are stagnant. It may be learning a new language, speaking a language better, playing a sport or instrument, reading more, writing more, communicating better with friends and families, exercising more, making a certain amount of money, graduating from school, achieving a certification, getting a job, getting a better job, quitting a vice that is hurting you, improving your skills at work, traveling, dieting and on and on. For each of us, goals are personal. Sit down and discover your goals for 2011.

7) Personal Health - without it, we have nothing. Get your annual check-ups and stay on top of health. If you don't, no one else will! Being overweight is a problem. Drinking and eating things that are bad for you is a problem. Not getting enough vegetables and healthy foods in your body is a problem. Not exercising is a problem. Not caring for each part of your body that God has given us is a problem. There are ways for all of us to improve our health.

8) Giving Back - through charity, becoming more eco-friendly or "green", and a myriad of other forms of helping others is something that some of us do more of than others due to time and resources. But there is no excuse for any of us to not find a way of being more charitable to others and giving back.

Happy New Year to you, your family and friends!
Let's make 2011 a great year!!

Marta Perrone
http://www.martaperrone.com