A Fresh Start

Monday is a great day for a fresh start. The beginning of a new week, new adventures, new responsibilities, events. Last night I attended a celebration honoring three women who were awarded grants from the Carefree Fresh Start Fund in partnership with Step Up Women’s Network. We gathered at the posh Spa Chakra on Fifth for cocktails, hor dourves, networking and celebrating the idea of fresh starts and change.

Thousands of women submitted essays explaining why they were deserving of a grant from Carefree to make a fresh start in life. Carefree provided $25,000 to 10 courageous and deserving women, women who are just like you and me. Three of the women attended the event: two who are struggling with health issues and one who is faced with debt while trying to raise a family.

There were also two featured speakers – Ariane de Bonvoisin, a change expert, author, and founder of The First 30 Days.com. She spoke about the fact that we are all facing change, that it is the word of the year and century. She spoke about several of her top tips when facing change – either self imposed or forced upon us. One is the idea of ‘Change GPS.’ As with the GPS in your car, you have a start location and an end location. It doesn’t care about where you were yesterday or what you did earlier this morning. If you want to make a change you need a start and an end. If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t worry about the cookie you ate yesterday or the run you didn’t do, but make today the start and decide where you want to end up then map out your path. However, when mapping out your path, don’t expect change to come quickly. Give yourself time. Change doesn’t happen in a day or a week, but you may be in a completely different place three or six months from now. When you’re making a change, whether it is your health, your job, or a relationship, you need a support system. Friends, family, colleagues, they can always be there for you and you can go to them for support. The second speaker was the actress Kelly Rutherford, well known for her role on Gossip Girl. She spoke about how the biggest change recently in her life has been becoming a mom. She experiences a fresh start whenever she gets a chance to take a shower or the first massage she had after giving birth. She also made a fresh start after having children when she realized that she needed to take care of herself and her diet not just for cosmetic reasons, but also so she will be around and healthy to see her children grow up. Yes, I think her life is a bit different than most of ours, but it’s all relative. A fresh start can be something as significant as taking responsibility for our health with a complete overhaul, moving across the country or seeking a new job, or as simple as eating more fruit each day, walking to work, or helping an elderly neighbor.

We shouldn’t be afraid of change and taking steps, big or small, towards a fresh start. We all deserve it. Every single one of us. We all deserve to be happy and healthy.

Are you in search of a fresh start?