Hi,
I hope you’re having a good day.
Today I am going to be doing a lot of planning for this up coming year.
With New Year’s just passed, the thought came to me, “Where will I be a year from now?”
Good question, don’t you think?
You know so many people do not think of this question which is very strange to me. I am a huge planner and that’s how I get results.
Anyway, it was a hard question to answer, once I started thinking about it, though.
I started thinking about past years, and the goals I had set for myself, those that I had met and those that I hadn’t met. As well as those I have yet to meet.
In my courses/systems, I stress the importance of setting short-term and long-term goals:
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I think it’s really important to set short-term and long-term goals. But I also think that they have to be realistic.
That’s why I think a lot of people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions – because they’re not realistic.
So where do you think you’ll be a year from now?
Think about it.
Do you want to be where you are today?
Because if you don’t, you’re going to need to change.
You’re going to need to change some things, and most importantly, you’re going to need to change yourself.
“Don’t fix what isn’t broken,” someone once told me.
Well, that’s not what I’m asking you to do.
If something is working for you, then definitely don’t change that (unless it’s harmful to you).
But if something is harmful to you or your disorder, then it needs to be changed.
For example, take your medication.
If you’ve been having problems with your medication, like if it hasn’t been working as good as it was, then maybe it’s time for a change. Call your doctor and tell him about it.
Or if you’ve been having side effects but you haven’t wanted to bother your doctor about them, or you’ve been too afraid to talk to your doctor about them, you need to change that. Call your doctor and tell him about them.
If you haven’t been getting very much out of your support group, you might want to think about changing support groups.
Keep thinking about where you want to be a year from now. Keep that thought in mind as you consider things.
If your relationship with friends and family hasn’t been the best, then you can change that in the coming year. Do you want it to be different a year from now? Do you want it to be better? Then do something about it now.
Have you been having trouble with your bipolar disorder?
Have you not been sticking to your treatment plan?
Have you been skipping doctor, psychiatrist, and/or therapist visits?
Do you want it to be different at this time next year?
Then start being compliant with your treatment plan now.
For supporters, have you wanted to be a better supporter? Then start now.
For those with bipolar disorder, have you felt like you’ve been taking your supporter for granted? Then change that now. Maybe there are things you promised yourself you would get to that you just haven’t done yet – that you’ve made excuses for, or haven’t made the time for. You can still do them. Just make them a priority so that next year at this time you can say that you did them!
Is there some dream or accomplishment you’ve been putting off? Make this year the year that you finally do it!
You can do anything you want with this year! Just ask yourself:
Where will I be a year from now?
Where WILL you be a year from now?
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Post responses below
Thank you for your letter. But for me this is old news. I have been true all this. I am 49 years old and biopolar all me life. No medicaments works on me. Only posotive is that I learn to live with it, instead of against it. For the moment I wait, for light. Doctors cant help me. I have family who love and cares for me. Not all have, so I am lucky. Now I wait…….. for the depression and the dark to go away. It will sooner ore later. This is me experience in life. Just take time.
Sincerly Liz
Hi Everyone, hope the first part of the New Year is going well. Where will I be in a year from now??? Hmmmm. I promised myself for the New Year I would get myself organized and not be such a scatterbrain. Jan. 3rd, I locked my keys in the car. $ 47.00 later, I think I had better put this resolution in place. I am a procrastinater, in my own life. Getting another set of keys would have been the smart thing to do, because it was the third time. To think things through before I act, is another one. I can’t be the best supporter if I don’t think things through to the best of my ability. A year from now I will be supporting the same lady (God willing) with more experience behind me. It truly is something to think about. Thanks for the thought.
I HOPE to be an “accomplished” freelance writer this time next year. I have put things in motion to really DO it, if I don’t procrastinate and keep putting it off. I decided to take this route, 1) because I’ve NEVER been this POOR, and 2) writing is something I’m good at. I got some GREAT advice from Bob, and I’ve already signed up to that site.
I promise to work at a pace that isn’t pressuring me, so that I get stressed out from a “job.” “Stress” is one of my “hobgobblins” that I have to watch out for with my bipolar disorder. That’s one reason my therapist says I CAN’T work a “normal” 9-5 job. But if I don’t have SOME money coming in – besides disability – I can’t live in my condo or pay for food or bills. It’s as cut-and-dried as that…
I also need to get more organized, with less “clutter.” I’m very POOR at keeping things in order, and have to discipline myself all the time to KNOW where things are – have a place for everything, and everything in its place. That’s harder for me than it sounds 🙁
At an early age, I realized I was a “scatterbrain,” when my third grade teacher said – “A messy desk indicates a messy mind.” I was SCARED that I was a “mental case.” Well, as it turned out, I AM!!
Wishing EVERYBODY a GREAT New Year with your realizations of where you WANT to be a year from now – it’s YOUR decision.
BIG HUGS to all bipolar survivors and those who love us. May God bless you real good. I pray for my country.
Where will I be a year from now? Finishinng my last semester towards my Bachelor’s Degree in Landscape Design. I’m 47 and finally at last the end is in sight! I, too, have to watch my level of stress and this semester is a BIGGEE for me, because for the first time I’m taking 16 units (4 above average at our school). My mom says that spring is my worst time. But I feel so good right now and have for the last 2 months– I feel like the old me, the person I was before I became Bipolar. I don’t think I’ve always had it. I think it was the result of a deep, deep depression that caused psychotic features and turned my brain into Bipolar. Also the doctors had me on huge amounts of Narcotics for about 7 years. Morphine, Oxycontin, vicodin and others, sometimes separately, sometimes a mixture. I think the addiction to this medication after years of use,also became a player in making me Bipolar. I know my husband (ex) drove me crazy when we were together, and then came the huge Depression after he left. That’s crazy!
But back to my goals: 1. Stay stable this year without any episodes.
2. Finish my last full year of school. 3. Make more friends. 4. Volunteer some of my free time. 3 and 4 are because I’ve isolated myself for so many years because of my condition. Isolation and being single for 11 years now has made me a stronger person than I ever was before. But it is time to move out of my shell.
Wishing all Bipolars and supporters a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
Teri
Where will I be a year from now? I will be 50! I hope to have finished my first semester in College and I hope to have my kids home with me and we should be living in a new home too. Hopefully I will also be almost debt free too (not including student loans obviously). I am pretty good with my meds, but not good at all with managing and tracking my diabetes, so I am going to make a commitment to that. I’d like to have my kids meds regulated too. And hopefully we will have some results from all the counseling and Theraputic Foster Care we area going through now. If I get really really blessed, the animal who hurt my kids will be in prison for the rest of his life instead of in protective custody in the local county prison. But that is a whole different ball of wax. If I am blessed beyond all imagination, I will have someone special in my life to consider sharing the future with.
Yes, it’s very important to have short term and long term goals. I have to set them in increments or I get lost. Example, I’m working on effective communication in therapy. I didn’t learn what I needed to to be able to do this. But this year is my year for growing in this department and to be able to enforce healthy boundaries.
I want things to be different with some family members, but the thing of it is, it’s one thing to want that, but if the other person isn’t interested, it’s a busted resolution. I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve resigned myself to accepting what can not be changed, that I can only change myself and not someone else. If I want a relationship with them and they don’t there isn’t much I can do about it that I’m aware of.
So, in essence, I need to work on improving me, to be a better me so I’m better for my supporter, my husband. He’s been great through the mood swings and I want to show him it’s possible for me to be more stable then I am at present. Although I’ve made progress, still progress has yet to be made – but I’ll keep working at it.
Thanks for everything you do.
I just turned 29 yrs last november and I have major health issues physically and mentally. I recently had my gallbladder out which I had no clue that it was bad. I have had problems with my kidneys and appendix for yrs and had near kidney failure which caused me to be hospitalized for a week in 2006. November 2008 I had severe pain that was consistent and wouldnt go away come to find out that I had to have an unexpected surgery a week before my 29th birthday. My whole life I have been fighting hard for my life litterally where I had to be brought back several occasions which is very scary and a lot of times I think why do I want to be here any more if all I have to do every day of my life is fight and experience severe pain. I have a 9 yr old boy, thats why but then the courts took him away and gave him to my dad because the court got bought out by my dad so I lost him and have no rights unless my dad says its ok and its my son. There is no reason or anything the courts could prove me being unfit. People with bipolar have children, in fact my dr said that, that is the best medicine for me. With my son I don’t have time to feel depressed, sad, and hopeless, Im too busy taking care of my son. Now that I don’t have him hardly at all I rarely feel like getting up out of bed and doing anything at all. I feel like I lost the most important part of my life and the other part of me was murdered my other half was murdered July 2007 so I still havent got over that yet. So all I can really hope for myself at this time is to atleast have a day that im not down in the dumps and hiding my eyes so everyone wont see my tears rolling down my face. Also I need to force myself to come out of my shell which I have been stuck in for so long and each day it gets even harder to budge. The most important is changing my thoughts to positive ones and not negative ones that only makes me think about death and dying, or suicidal thoughts when I cant handle it anymore and feel like breaking. So there are more I need to work on but I need to work on these ones first which are the more important ones at this time. I learned to take it 1 min at a time because you never know where you will end up. Well I wish you all the best whether you are bipolar survivors or supporters! Those who are supporters, thanks for hanging in there I know its hard to handle our episodes that are rough, but we really don’t mean anything by it so dont take it offensively or personal! Anyway gotta go for now and God bless you all and good luck on your new years resolutions! Love you all and take care!
I was once thought to be bipolar, but a therapist and a psychiatrist ruled that out, even telling my parents so. However, I am related to a bipolar sufferer, currently imprisoned for arson; so a year from now I may still need to visit her in this unfortunate setting. Yet she seems to have a freer spirit there than anywhere else I’ve been able to tell. We (visitors and prisoner) are always taking advantage of the routine “vending machine feast.” She orders jalapeno chips, peanut butter cups and Dr. Pepper. But we usually chat until we run out of chatting material. She says she would not live without this socializing encounter about every other week. It’s also interesting to familiarize myself with people who prove themselves to be very caring individuals, from gate guards to counseling visitors.