Craft the life you want. You control the story and how it’s written.

If a happy accident led you here, you’re looking for someone trying to find themselves or you just wondered, “Hey, what’s that Bishop kid up to now?”, welcome aboard! You’ve just joined the legions of people (okay, maybe just one or two) who have jumped on the Hot Mess Express. I’m your conductor, Autumn.

If you haven’t sorted it out by the huge Jayhawk in my photo, I might be a huge fan of the University of Kansas. The two degrees I’ve earned there (along with the accompanying mountain of debt) attest to that. I’ve got a good life, complete with great family and friends and an amazing job, but I still struggle to find my place in the world. The massive amount of anxiety I carry isn’t always the most helpful when it comes to fitting in.

Based on that, I’ve been thinking a lot about reinvention lately. It happens constantly, whether it’s due to the passage of time or a conscious effort to change course. It’s an integral part of life, but it can also be absolutely terrifying.

I feel like you sometimes have a lightbulb moment where it all becomes clear that reinventing yourself or some aspect of your life is necessary. That happened for me yesterday. I’ve been struggling lately. All of a sudden, an idea popped into my noggin.

Craft the life you want. You control the story and how it’s written.

And with that, it hit me. I’ve only got this one life to live – this one chance to do it all and to do it the way I want to. I’m going to build the foundation first and see where that takes me. So here are my new rules to live by:

• Practice gratitude every day.
• No alcohol
• Exercise for at least 30 minutes each day.
• Drink eight glasses of water.
• Before your head hits the pillow, list three good things about your day.
• And most importantly, fight like hell for the life you want.

We begin today! Stay tuned to see how things go…