With Christmas over and the new year coming up quick, it’s always a time for me to look back and reflect on everything so that I can start the new year not with new beginnings, but with greater appreciation of everything I have. I don’t like to see the new year as a way to start from scratch, to me – it defeats the purpose of progression. I hate the idea of waiting till a new year to establish goals for myself. I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to doing things, but when I want things – I’m going to work for it right away.

2012 was an awesome year just like previous years. People tend to reflect on the negative things from the past and work on making things better. Instead, why not focus on the positive and work on making more of them? The one thing I always circle around to is the people I have in my life. While the material things are great – I’m not as heartfelt for them because they only provide immediate satisfaction. My car only makes me happy when I drive it. My clothes only make me happy when I wear them. Material things come and go without much thought, but you can’t say the same about people.

The first person that comes to mind is Diana. She is my right hand lady. She is my foundation and my highest point. She is the reason I want to become a better person and she has been that person for the last million years that we’ve been together. When you find somebody that can make you a better you only by being themselves, keep them close. When you can share the same energy day in and day out despite what life puts you through, it’s refreshing to know you can not just lean on her, but climb on her back and let her carry you. It’s not just who she is that makes her great, it’s what she would do for you that makes the difference.

Recently, Diana has been joining me at the gym because her goal was to lose some chub that was stressing her out. At first, she went because she felt like she had to and it was a chore. Those of you starting at the gym might feel the same. It takes a while to make it a habit and if you don’t work at it, you end up just giving up. If you don’t see results, you tend to lose the drive that brought you there in the first place. The gym was Diana’s bane of existence, while it was my forte. I made sure to take a before picture of Diana and pushed her to keep going – 2 months later, I took another picture and put them side by side and the difference was there. Not only was she happy, but I was happy for her. Somewhere down the road, that chore became a habit and she’s gotten to the point where she’s pushing at the same intensity as me. It was hard for me to find someone to train the same way I do, the last person I expected it to be was Diana. She is the hardest working girl I know with the strongest drive to get after it.

My family of course is my backbone. They support me with everything I do and convince me that I can be better. My cars has been one of the biggest passions in my life and I can take it pretty seriously. Over time, they’ve gone from hating what I did to loving it. From asking “what did you waste your money on this time?” to “what wheels are you going to get?”. From hating going into the garage while I’m working to checking out what I’m putting on. The biggest thing family can do for you is support you with your decisions and to tell you it’s a bad idea if they truly think so and let you work it out yourself. You don’t learn from people telling you that fire can burn you until you burn yourself. You don’t know what success feels like until you work for it.

Finally, my close friends. They are the people I can rely on to pick me up when I am down and to talk to when I’ve got something dumb to say. These are my go to people for opinions on car stuff or advice on how to go about certain things. It’s hard to find good friends these days – the ones that you can trust and will stick around no matter what mood you’re in. Friends are the one thing that come and go, but there is always a handful that come and just never go – thankfully. I’m a skeptical person when it comes to making new friends. I don’t like wasting my time on fake people and I don’t like wasting my time being fake. When you can find people that treat you like family and keep you there, trust that they are genuine. I wouldn’t treat anyone like family if I didn’t feel like they could be.

And that’s it! I’m not going to reflect on my cars or shit like that because if I lost my car today, I’d get another one tomorrow. I can’t replace the people above so it’s best that I think about them now and appreciate them as often as I can. Merry Christmas Boxing New Year Day!