2018 has been a year of goodbyes for me. I have had to say goodbye to people, places of employment and even some of my old ways of thinking. There were times when I felt like I was even saying goodbye to my own sanity. Many of you know I’m not big on new year’s resolutions. However, I am all for self improvement of any kind.

If you’re anything like me, you adapt to the pain of goodbye. I like to compare it to someone who is a functioning alcoholic or drug addict. The danger of just being “functional” through our goodbyes is we set ourselves up to crash and burn. After reading my new poetry book, Eleven: Things We Never Said, one of my friends told me he had no idea that some of those things were going on in my life.

I try not to complain and tell my woe is me stories. Honestly, we all have our own struggles and dilemmas to deal with. Nevertheless, we still have to find a way to press through the goodbyes, despite the type of scars they leave. Here are eleven truths to help channel the inevitable negative energy associated with goodbye.

1. Find the humor in it. Even life’s toughest situations have a funny bone if you look hard enough.
2. Don’t be bitter. It doesn’t help the situation at all and it only hurts you in the end.
3. Man/Woman up. Goodbye doesn’t come without its share of consequences. We can’t predict all the most important moments in our lives, but all serious goodbyes should not be made hastily.
4. Occupy your time with productivity. Sulking never helped anyone. Focus your energy on something that helps you grow and keeps you out of a depressive rut.
5. Don’t beat yourself up. Often times, we incessantly replay our own faults that led up to a goodbye. Everything in life is cause and effect. No one person is the cause of a goodbye.
6. Be careful of what you say and who you vent to. With some goodbyes, people are waiting for you to slip up and act out of character. Don’t do it.
7. Don’t burn bridges. That same person or place you dismiss today may be the one you need later on in life.
8. Goodbyes don’t make you a failure. This one needs no further explanation.
9. Goodbyes are necessary to reach the next level. We can’t reach new heights if we play it safe on the same stair case.
10. Goodbyes birth courage. Sometimes one goodbye sets you up for a trial you have to face later in life. By the time you get there, it’s easier to digest because of your previous experiences.
11. After today, you can say goodbye to the special pre-sale pricing for my new book, Eleven: Things We Never Said. Make sure you get your copy today (click HERE), before the discounted price expires on January 1st.