Hit The Trails: Start Off the New Year in Nature

January 26, 2021

By Anna McKay

Northwest Florida has rich wetlands and natural wildlife in abundance, but that often gets overlooked in pursuit of beachier pursuits. Look a little though, and you’ll find in and around Panama City Beach a variety of opportunities for outdoor recreation enthusiasts. Both locals and tourists alike can appreciate the nature trails and parks that are in the area, but one of the area’s best kept secrets might well be Panama City Beach Conservation Park (shhhhh!).

Panama City Beach Conservation Park takes in an expansive stretch of over 2,900 protected acres and 24 miles of trail. Here you have the chance to experience beautiful ecosystems thriving and uninterrupted. From hiking to bird watching and biking (as well as the occasional bear or wild hog sighting), there are activities for all ages – and it’s free. Also, a $95,000 trail stabilization project was completed in 2020 in an effort to improve surface conditions for pedestrians and cyclists which means, for those of you who already frequent the park, no more muddy bogs along Cypress Pond Trail. In part because of the damage done to the trails by aforementioned wild hogs, Utilities Director Al Shortt explained in a recent press release that, “These trails were rough and uneven, creating a tripping hazard.” This project included the regrading of five trails with a more level gravel surface. According to Shortt, “These materials provide a better walking and running surface, yet allow stormwater to go through.”

The park is dog-friendly (leash required), with a good selection of trail lengths to enjoy, including short jaunts suitable for less-enthusiastic hikers (.6 miles in length) but also a more serious 11-mile route, with peaceful boardwalk passages and three-mile hikes in between. The park utilizes Bay County’s reclaimed water system to rehydrate the wetlands and also actively works to restore and re-nourish the habitats for wild species. A handy trail map is available upon arrival, and there is a park shelter, restrooms, parking, picnic tables, and a water station available for your convenience. Located just over a mile north of Panama City Beach Parkway, the Conservation Park can also be reached via the western arm of Gayle’s Trails, a paved walk/bike trail that starts from the north side of Frank Brown Park. The Conservation Park is open every day from dawn to dusk.

Keep Your Cool for a Better Snooze

January 26, 2021

By Anna McKay

If you’ve ever found yourself tossing and turning at night because the temperature of your room is making you uncomfortable, you’re not alone. Whether you’re experiencing night sweats or hormonal complications during pregnancy, no one should be uncomfortable in their own bed. The good news is that there are solutions for hot sleepers that will enhance your bedtime routine so that you can look forward to a full night’s rest again!

A cooling bed set should be a top priority for someone who is experiencing issues with their body temperature at night. Florida Linen, located in Panama City Beach, has a team of design experts always available to help you select the perfect linens for your home, including custom bedding for hot sleepers. When selecting the correct bedding for you, you should keep these three factors in mind: comfort, value, and temperature control. The key to accommodating naturally-hot sleepers is to choose a fabric that has breathable properties, such as linen, bamboo, or percale sheets. Loose-weave fibers ensure that the bedding is extra soft and moisture-wicking. You should look for something that has fibers that are fine-spun to reduce the humidity in your bed.

A good set of sheets can greatly improve your daily sleep, which will in turn increase your quality of life! One benefit to temperature-regulating sheets, such as those made from bamboo, is that the sheets will not only reduce the moisture in your bed but also keep you cool in the summer and cozy in the colder months. You’ll want something that will keep you clean and fully-rested when you wake up. Most people tend to sleep on either flannel or a blend of polyester and cotton sheets, which can cause some people to build up internal temperatures at night since they are not moisture-wicking. While it is a popular bedding choice, it could be causing you to build up heat over a few hours.

There are other factors that you consider when selecting sheets that may not necessarily have temperature control but will enhance your sleep cycle such as hypoallergenic and anti-bacterial sheets. This will reduce the moisture around you, which decreases your chances of getting allergies or dust mites in your bed.

Of course, the look of your bedding is important as well. Lyn Donalson, owner of Florida Linen, and her team strive to provide the highest quality of quilts and stylish bedding for everyone’s preferences. There are luxurious bed set options for every size from Twin to King-size. If you’re in need of new bedding or you’re ready to upgrade to better sleep, head over to Florida Linen and one of their design experts will be happy to assist you and answer any questions about selecting a cozy, coastal bed set for your needs.

Tax Collector Partners With All Florida Safety Institute

January 29, 2021

For all the challenges faced since the pandemic began, rethinking service delivery has allowed for new partnerships and greater innovation. Thankfully for Bay County citizens it has also provided some additional service offerings.

This fall the Bay County Tax Collector’s Office partnered with All Florida Safety Institute to bring additional driving instruction and road exams to our area. The partnership gives customers some options and flexibility for road tests.

At the first signs of COVID-19 impacting Florida, Bay County Tax Collector Chuck Perdue began monitoring the practices of other tax collector offices around the state and looking to see how they were providing services in a safe environment for both customers and team members. Many tax collectors around the state elected to stop offering driving tests as it requires team members to be in close quarters with customers for over 15 minutes. They elected instead to have state certified third-party testers perform these services, but it was at an additional expense to the customers.

“We knew we needed to find a way to provide more road testing options for our citizens, but we didn’t want to take an all or nothing approach,” said Tax Collector Chuck Perdue. “We made the decision to limit the number of road testing out of necessity and safety concerns. Road tests put a customer and a team member in very close proximity with limited air flow together for an extended period of time. Due to the duration of the road test, the service also significantly impacts the flow of service at our service centers since it is a lengthy process. As COVID-19 numbers grew in our county, we made service delivery adjustments to protect our high-risk team members. We also had team members who had exposure and had to quarantine. Our ability to be flexible with service delivery took a significant hit as we experienced the impacts of the virus.”

The tax collector’s partnership with All Florida Safety Institute provided a solution to the need for additional road testing options for Bay County residents. As so many of our citizens are still recovering from Hurricane Michael and have been financially impacted by the pandemic, we wanted to make sure we still offered appointments for the service, but for those unwilling to wait a few weeks for an appointment and those financially willing to pay the testing fee, we wanted to offer this as an option.

In addition to providing road tests, All Florida Safety Institute also offers driving instruction courses. Rates for their services vary based on the time and instruction required. All Florida Safety Institute is able to upload test results to the Tax Collector’s Office immediately so customers with passing results can have their credentials issued.

Individuals interested in learning more about All Florida Safety Institute’s services in Bay County can visit https://allfloridasafetyinstitute.com/panama-city-road-test/ or give them a call at (850) 786-2555.

For information regarding the Bay County Tax Collector’s Office, visit BayTaxCollector.com.

Grand Lagoon Life: Collaboration is King

January 29, 2021

By Marta Rose-Thorpe

Collaboration is King… that is my thought today. In the nineties, when the Information Superhighway and World Wide Web came along, I was learning what the jargon meant, getting my first email address (my first was Earthlink! Do you remember your first?) and learning how to navigate this new life-changing technology. Sometimes I would hear the phrase, “Content is King.” I Didn’t know what it meant, but it sounded cool.

Then, in 1999 in Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to work with a brilliant woman and co-produce an Internet conference called “VentureNet 99.” This took place at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California in the early part of 1999. The purpose of the event was to introduce and connect start-up dot-com’s with venture capitalists that could fund them. My role was to assist the show producer in all aspects of putting on this large event with over 100 dot-com’s hoping to be funded. As I became exposed to this new world more and more, becoming familiar with the web jargon and how everything worked, I kept hearing that phrase more and more, “Content is King.”

Okay, I get it, content is important… maybe even the most important aspect of these new emerging websites. But what, really, did that mean? It meant that those young websites could only stay relevant – and thus get viewed and clicked on – if new content (stories, blogs, visuals) consistently poured in. Many dot-coms looked great at that show; many were brilliantly engineered and had great missions and purposes. But even the sites with the best architecture, technology, graphics, videos and transitions became irrelevant if the content was old. The new dot-coms were only as good as their continual new writings, bloggings and photos, i.e. their “Content.”

Fast forward twenty years, and content is still king… and collaboration is the way to get that content. Now I run a media company focused on publishing, social media and a web-based show, and I realize I’ve chosen a profession that heavily relies on working with other people in a team environment. I have people who write and photograph for the magazine, do interviews for the show, help put on the events, and then COME to the events!

Think about your chosen career or your job. Do you work solo or as a team? I love Tony Robbin’s statement, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go as a team.” I think the way many people do business changed earlier this year when we went into a mandatory quarantine and stayed at home. We started working more solo – or did we? It’s interesting to see all the new virtual meetings, networking groups, seminars and conferences – even parties, reunions and happy hours – happening virtually these days. Though we literally are alone in front of our computer, we are not alone, and all of this still takes people, teamwork and collaboration. I am grateful for the opportunity to get to work with others.

Is collaboration king for you?

PCB Chamber: Year in Review

January 29, 2021

By Kristopher McLane, President/CEO,
Panama City Beach Chamber of Commerce

The holiday season is officially upon us and the year 2020 is coming to an end. We can all agree that 2020 was unpredictable and full of challenges for businesses and their employees, communities, hospitals, schools, and sadly those families that lost loved ones.
This is a year that most are ready to forget and move on from. However, I think it’s still important to remember that 2020 did have some positives. For me personally, my wife and I welcomed our beautiful baby boy to our family this March. For our organization, we found out how resilient our team can be during a pandemic.

With the pandemic upon us, our Chamber had to think quickly and be innovative with approaches that allowed our members to connect with other businesses virtually or in small groups due to restrictions. Our large events like the Women’s Work-Life Symposium, Panama City Beach Marathon, Friday at the Beach, and some Business After Hours, unfortunately, had to be postponed or cancelled. We created virtual Ideacamps with community speakers and members to share updates and ideas with other members on Facebook live. Our team created a Restaurant Guide for our membership that listed who was still open or offering carryout/delivery options. Our Chamber answered hundreds of calls/emails a week with concerned visitors and businesses. The need was so great that we designed a COVID-19 information resource page on PCBeach.org that has received almost 750,000 page views. We even created a new event once our state moved into Phase 3 with our PCB Chamber Bowling Tournament. Anything we could do to support our members, help our community, and still assist visitors, we were committed to doing.

I am very proud and lucky to have my talented team and supportive Board of Directors, led by Chairman Matt Griffitts, who guided our organization through 2020. The PCB Chamber still accomplished two of our goals: 1.) Growing our Membership to nearly 1,300 members and 2.) Giving back to the community with donations: $3,750 to Haney Technical, $1,000 to the Human Society, $1,000 to Covenant Care, and $200 to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of NW Florida. Plus, our December Business After Hours/Christmas Party is a huge toy drive for the Panama City Beach Police Department and Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

I want to conclude by saying thank you to all of our hard-working front-line healthcare workers, police, firefighters, EMS, and of course, our military who protect us every day. I also want to thank our proud members and community leaders who support us every year and allow us to continue our mission. We truly appreciate each and every one of you. This holiday season, let’s just reflect on the positives from the year and remember all those that protect our communities and country every day.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

Dr. John Holdnak Leads the Way at Gulf Coast State College

January 29, 2021

By Jamie Zimchek, Editor

Dr. John Holdnak, Gulf Coast State College’s president, has Panama City roots so deep he was delivered at Lisenby Hospital on 11th Street by a doctor who sat on the college’s board of Trustees when he was originally hired in 1982. Lisenby Hospital has long since closed, but Holdnak, at the helm of GCSC since 2014, through a major hurricane and equally daunting pandemic, is still going strong.

Like most career paths, Dr. Holdnak’s has had a twist or two. A Bachelor of Science in Leisure Services from Florida State University in Tallahassee set him on the general road toward administration, first as an intern at a commercial resort, then in a position running the college’s student activities programs. He detoured from these more administrative roles to finish a Master of Science from Florida State University Panama City in Psychology, and spent some time teaching before really locking in on his calling. Equipped in 2005 with a Doctor of Education from the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Dr. Holdnak continued to take on more administrative responsibilities, including time spent as an academic department head, Director of Wellness and Athletics, Human Resources Director, and the Dean and Vice President of Administrative Services, at GCSC, with a sum total of 26 years at the college on his first watch. Subsequently, over the next six years, he manned the position of Vice Chancellor for Fiscal Policy, and later the Executive Vice Chancellor, for the Florida College System.

The Florida College System includes 28 Florida community/state colleges – and though Gulf Coast State College might be one of the smaller in enrollment size, it plays an outsized role in the community, offering not just a two year Associate of Arts degree, but also associate degrees and certifications in a variety of occupational fields, and a handful of options for full four year degrees, like a Bachelor of Science in Digital Media, or in Organizational Management. Holdnak also notes that GCSC boasts the lowest tuition and fees fees of all 40 public institutions in Florida, including both public colleges and the state’s public universities. Better still, you can finish an Associate of Arts degree here for far less than at a traditional university, and then transfer over to one of Florida’s 12 universities, where you are guaranteed acceptance to the university as a junior. Limited access programs at the university may require a separate application and the completion of specified prerequisites, also typically taught at Gulf Coast. In other words, this is a state college with its community and the needs of its students at its core.

What take-aways does he have from his many years of experience? “Perspective is everything,” he says. “Every second we have with students is so precious.” This approach guides decision making for the college, where the focus on impact to students is paramount. He relates that this is relevant even in thinking about school closures due to inclement weather. “Closing is not a simple decision,” Holdnak explains. It’s particularly crucial near the end of a term, when the remaining time spent in class is even more limited. Though major storms have fortunately been less of an issue these past two years, GCSC has not been immune to the changes necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Because growing evidence suggests that student academic performance often drops with online learning, Holdnak has worked to make faculty more accessible and provide more online and supplemental resources. For classes that, out of necessity, involve in-person learning, like lab classes, clinicals, or fire fighting training, they’ve done things like reducing class frequency by making class sessions longer, and reducing class sizes so that students can spread out more in existing facilities. Thanks also to close adherence to CDC guidelines, and a flexible approach to classes that includes virtual or hybrid options when possible, there have been “zero transmissions of the disease that occurred on campus related to college events,” he says. Which is impressive, no matter your degree.

Head to Gulf Coast State College’s website, www.gulfcoast.edu, for more information on degree programs and to register now online for spring 2021.

ISO: PCB’s Best Signature Cocktails

January 14, 2021

By Jack Smith

Far be it from me to tell you which signature cocktail to enjoy sitting outside gazing at our world famous sunsets. Just know that I’m going to tell you there’s something special about sipping a perfectly crafted cocktail at a local watering hole as you soak in the sights, sounds and smells of Panama City Beach. Drinking also brings together bartenders and patrons, tourists and locals. Some of my most memorable moments begin with a good drink and close friends. Just as countries all over the world are known for their unique foods, destinations are also famous for their libations. Ernest Hemmingway is known for spending countless hours at Sloppy Joe’s in Key West downing Mojitos. So if you are here on vacation, and looking for the perfect bartender to mix a beach-unique cocktail (or a Hemingway-worthy Mojito), just ask the locals. They’ll know where to send you for just the right sunset pairing. See next page for some of our favorites.

Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant
5551 N Lagoon Drive, PCB | (850) 234-2225
www.captandersons.com
Napoleon Bonaparte said, “In victory, you deserve champagne. In defeat, you need it.” Win or lose in 2021, Capt. Anderson’s invites you to explore the ultimate drink: champagne! Our legendary cellar houses a selection of champagnes unrivaled in our part of the world. So, next time you go out for a cocktail, “taste the stars” instead! Our servers can guide you through it, from beginner to connoisseur, all the way from a glass of Moet & Chandon to Dom Perignon P3, Krug D’Ambonnay, and Salon. Wine lovers: check out the Wine Club at captandersons.com.

The Shrimp Boat Restaurant
1201 Beck Avenue, Panama City | (850) 785-8706
www.shrimpboatpc.com
The Shrimp Boat, located in Historic St. Andrews, is well-known in the local area for their line of signature drinks. Stop by the waterfront restaurant from 4-7 PM for their daily Sunset Special: Buy 1 Get 1 Signature Drinks. Ocean Water (left) features Bacardi, Blue Curacao, Peach Schapps, Pineapple and Sour. Heavenly (middle) features 360 Double Chocolate Vodka, Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Bailey’s, Cream de Cacaco and Cream. Crew of St. Andrews’ Punch (right) features Bacardi, Malibu, Pineapple, Orange Juice and a splash of Grenadine.

Christo’s Sports Bar & Grill
2903 Thomas Drive, PCB | (850) 708-1878
christossportsbarandgrill.com
A sports bar with a twist! Come in for our full selection of spirits, 13 ice cold beers on tap plus great hot wings, burgers and seafood. Try our Blueberry Blush – made with blueberry vodka, fresh lemonade and a floater of Deloach Pinot Noir. Family-owned full sports bar featuring 25 high def TVs covering all the major sporting events. We have a different seasonal salad each month—this month is a kale/apple. We have delicious homemade soups to warm you up this winter, including tomato, potato, vegetable, broccoli & cheese and navy bean & sausage.

Mike’s Café & Oyster Bar
17554 Front Beach Road, PCB | (850) 234-1942
mikescafeandoysterbar.com
Full bar, cold drinks and fresh seafood. Come see us during our winter hours 3-9 p.m. seven days a week and enjoy a cocktail. Try our Gulf Rum Punch with vodka, cranberry, orange, pineapple juice and a splash of Sierra Mist. Our family opened Thomas’ Donuts on the west end of Panama City Beach in 1971 and we have been serving old friends and making new ones ever since. Mike’s Diner was opened in 1986 with a commitment to providing friendly service and the best quality food. Come see why our customers keep coming back!

Time with Wine: Aaron Pott of Pott Wines

January 30, 2021

At Kwiker Liquor, we know that the key to having a great selection of fine wines is knowing a great selection of Vintners and Winemakers. And we take pride in cultivating these relations to bring the very best to our customers in the Panhandle. This month we called on our friend Aaron Pott to share his story with us:

We had all been hoping for a fantastic harvest in 2020. After months of dealing with the pandemic we all felt that 2020 was going to be something wonderful, that somehow a great vintage would make up for all the horrors that we encountered in this problematic revolution around the sun. In the back of my mind I was thinking that it would be unprecedented to have three amazing vintages in a row! The vintages 2018, with its beautiful freshness and balance, and 2019, a vintage of power and suppleness, were some of the best wines we had ever made.

On August 16, 2020 I spent the day working at my vineyard Châteauneuf du Pott 1600 feet above sea level with a dominating view of the Napa Valley. Our organic vineyard was in perfect condition. The vines’ green leafy canopy growth balanced perfectly with the dark purple fruit that hung down from the canes in perfectly formed bunches. Thus far, the weather had been ideal; very little rain in winter, warm early spring and summer leading to a relatively cool early August provided by the cooling fog of the San Francisco Bay.

The next morning we would wake up to a spectacle that I have rarely seen in the Napa Valley, a lightning storm. The lightning would ignite a series of fires that would change the course of the vintage and the fortunes of many vintners forever. The fires that started early that morning, along with another starting on the night of September 27, would not be under control until late October.

Many of the vineyards that were nearby the fires would suffer from smoke taint, caused when fresh smoke creates volatile phenol compounds in the wine. These compounds cause the wines to smell of old cold smoke, like an old ashtray that needs emptying (if anyone can remember that!) and gives a smoky flavor to the wines as well as a slight bitterness and grainy feeling tannins. Great wines can become almost undrinkable due to smoke taint. This horrible outcome paled in comparison to the specter of losing a winery or even a vineyard destroyed by fire.

Our little family owned winery is uniquely small. We make a little over 14,000 bottles of wine (about 1200 cases). I grow and make the wines, oversee the vineyard and in addition consult for a handful of ultra premium wines in the Napa Valley (Blackbird, Greer, Emos, Fe, Martin Estate, Bernard Magrez Napa Valley, Perliss, James Cluer’s Sigma Project, Saint Helena Winery and Seven Stones). My wife handles the website, releases, client interface, and the complex economics of a small winery. My daughters, Tosca 13, and Isolde 11, help out in the vineyard and winery when school permits. Our wine is genuinely hand made from organic grapes, and hand sorted twice before going through a series of optical sorting devices. Grapes are put to open top wooden fermentation vats using gravity and punched down by hand (and sometimes by feet!) to extract the delicious flavors of the grape into the fermenting juice. Fermentation occurs naturally with no added yeast or bacteria. Wines are put to artisan French coopered barrel or clay amphora without filtration and stored in a strict environment of 55°F and 75% relative humidity until they are ready to bottle.

We make three different tiers of wine. The third tier known as Pott Wine Napa Valley is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from all of our vineyards scattered about the valley. The second tier is known as our Single Vineyard wines. These 4 wines come from 3 different iconic vineyards around the valley. Her Majesty’s Secret Service Cabernet Sauvignon and our Original Gangster Grenache come from Stagecoach Vineyard. Kaliholmanok Cabernet Sauvignon is from the Kicu’me Ballard Vineyard on the very top of Spring Mountain, and Turf War Cabernet Sauvignon from the legendary Tychson Hill area in the northern part of St. Helena. Finally our top tier is from our organic estate vineyard on Mt. Veeder known lovingly as Châteauneuf du Pott. We make four different wines: a small quantity of Viognier (the only white we make!) that we call 20m3, a natural wine from 100% Cabernet Franc known as Agnès Sorel, a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot called Space and Time, and finally our incredible mountain estate Cabernet Sauvignon known as Incubo.

Luckily in 2020 our estate vineyard was far from the fires yet we will still only be making a fraction of the wines that we produce normally due to smoke taint. We will not be making Kaliholmanok, Her Majesty’s Secret Service and Original Gangster. In these vineyards we didn’t even bother to pick grapes. Quantities of estate wines will be about 20% of their normal production. The Pott Wine Napa Valley will also be in very limited supply from 2020.
Although the dream of having a third great vintage in a row has been dashed by fire, what we have produced is exceptional. It has also shown one of the greatest fundamental aspects of great wine, terroir. Terroir is a French word that means all of the elements that affect the aromas, aspect and flavor of a great agricultural product. Whether it is cheese, peaches or wine, climate, site, and weather make a difference on how each of these looks, tastes, and smells. We winemakers have been yelling about this for years because it is the most important difference between wines. We make wines from unique sites and these wines are unique because of the sites. If there are eucalyptus trees near a vineyard you will smell and taste the menthol of the eucalyptus trees in the wine. If there is lavender, sage, roses or other flowers and spices being grown close to the vines you will smell them in the wine. And sadly, if there is fire nearby you will smell that in the wine too! When you drink wine, smell it, taste it and think about what the site looks like, what the dirt looks like and is made of, what is growing around it and how it is affected by the weather. All of this and more is wine!

Bio-Identical vs. Synthetic Hormone Treatment

January 30, 2021

By Richard Chern, M.D.

You might have heard the phrase synthetic is not always bad and organic is not always good. But in the world of hormones, the research suggests bio-identicals are always the right way to go! So, what’s the difference? The main difference is the molecular structure of a bio-identical hormone is…well…identical to our hormones, and the structure of a synthetic is not. Since this is not well understood by patients or doctors, hormones sometimes get a bad name.

Well, testosterone is bad, right? We hear news stories all the time telling us about the negative effects of testosterone. For testosterone in the form of testosterone cypionate, a synthetic—and the most commonly prescribed testosterone shot—this is true. Synthetic testosterone will make you feel better, but it will NOT make you healthier. Synthetic testosterone increases your risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer and more. Bio-Identical testosterone, however, not only makes you feel better and provides an increase in vitality for life, but also reduces your risk of Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, muscle loss and more (the list goes on).

In 1991, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was started by the National Institute for Health (NIH) to confirm the benefits of hormone replacement. The study was stopped in 2002, three years early, because the women taking synthetic estrogens were dying from heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer at such a high rate that the study could not ethically continue. Unfortunately, the story became “all hormone replacement is bad.”

This information was so widely dispersed that both patients and doctors around the world stopped using hormone replacement and many are still hesitant to use hormone replacement today. However, while strokes, heart attacks, breast cancer and more are all increased in the women who received the synthetic hormones, those receiving bio-identical hormones experienced a decrease in their risk of all of these conditions. Again, synthetic hormones can improve symptoms, but bio-identical hormones improve health and prevent disease as well.

Bio-Identical progesterone helps decrease the risk of uterine cancer, helps the brain heal after injury, and promotes nerve and brain function while synthetic progesterone, or progestins, increase your risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart attack. There is a pattern here I believe everyone can see.

At The Hormone Restoration Center, we specialize in bio-identical hormones and believe we have the highest quality bio-identicals available. For more information, please call 850-837-1271, located at 12889 U.S.-98 E., Unit 107B in Miramar Beach.

What’s Your 2021 Story?

January 30, 2021

By Stephenie Craig, Journey Bravely

2020 is over and yet you might continue to face many of the same challenges as you enter the new year. It can be easy to feel resentfully stuck in survival mode and to view yourself as a victim of the pandemic and other major stressors of 2020. Isolation, financial challenges, racism, political change, value debates on social media, and missing the way things used to be. It’s all a lot to carry and work through as you hope for recovery and continue to walk in the mess.

Resolutions may feel trite and impossible this year as we limp along and try to hold it together. Honestly acknowledging our personal and collective discomfort and suffering is a healthy practice. However, getting stuck in bitterness and hopelessness only feeds the negative energy we are all hoping to escape.

What if instead of writing resolutions, you were to ask yourself what you want your story to be at the end of 2021?

While there are many circumstances in life that are often out of your control, you are in control of your behavior and choices. You get to decide how you’ll treat others, how you’ll talk to yourself, how you’ll live out your faith, how you’ll engage with your values, how you’ll take healthy risks, how you’ll respond to challenges, and how you’ll step into personal growth. These personal practices will largely shape your story this year.

What if instead of carrying the weight of victimhood from 2020, you were to step into the practice of writing all of the parts of your story that are within your power?

5 Ways to Move from Victim to Writer of Your 2021 Story:

Acknowledge struggle while looking for redemption. Honestly admit to yourself when you’re experiencing grief and hardship. Feel the feelings associated with the difficulty. Watch for short- and long-term ways you see suffering in your life creates opportunity for growth, connection and comforting others.

Create a mental or written list of 3-5 big ideas within your control you want to be true of your story at the end of 2021. Examples: I want to have been a loving, connected parent, friend, partner. I want to have given generously from what I earned. I want to have expressed a grateful attitude regularly. I want to have faced challenges and pain with grace and dignity. I want to have spent time on things that matter most to me. I want to have said encouraging things to myself and others most of the time. I want to see progress in this specific business skill. I want to have engaged a spirit of adventure.

Create a more detailed story for each of your 3-5 big ideas. Big idea: I want to have lived generously. Detailed story about living generously: I want to look back over 12 months and see that I intentionally set aside money, time and other resources as a monthly practice rather than spending all of my resources on myself. I want to see that I used those resources to give to people and causes I value. Some of the people and causes I value are my church, Caring & Sharing of South Walton and Compassion International.

Take steps to make your story real. If I’m going to look back and see that I gave generously this year, I’m going to: set up auto-giving for my top 3 valued organizations, set up a specific auto-transfer savings account designated for generous giving, set up regular monthly volunteer hours.

Read and edit your story as you go. Check in monthly on your story and determine if you’re living into the story you want to be true at the end of the year. Be gracious with yourself, determine where you’re struggling, and make edits when needed. For example: I planned to auto-give to 3 organizations but I had a financial change. I’m going to reduce my amounts to all 3 or I’m going to choose one organization instead.

The healthy way to engage your 2021 story is to face the circumstances outside your control with acceptance and focus on writing what you can control with hope and determination. As you move from victim to writer of your 2021 story, remember that Journey Bravely has coaching sessions available to help move your story forward. Connect with us at journeybravely.com.

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