Embracing a New Year

As we gear up for the start of a new year, so many thoughts fill our minds. What does the year ahead hold? How do we achieve all we are setting out to? Will this be a good year for us? How do we save for our next holiday destination? This is an exciting time of the year, a time for review, reflection and renewal. A New Year brings with it an opportunity to try again, to start afresh and to beat us at our best.

One of the most important insights in embracing a New Year means that you need to start off with a positive mindset. Positivity attracts positivity and creates opportunities for growth and success. It is only when you open yourself up to probabilities, that you invite opportunity into your life. We also know that setting goals is common for the start of a New Year. Goals that reflect our inner desires, our priorities for the year ahead, goals that tell us what needs the most attention in our lives and goals that prepare us for the future, taking us one step closer to our dream, our vision, our purpose.

In starting a New Year, there are 4 important cornerstones.

Self-confidence – start the year off believing in your greatest asset, YOU. Nothing can be accomplished without the alignment of your heart, your mind and your will. One of the most important ingredients for taking on any project, starting a new job, seizing a new opportunity, embracing a New Year, taking on a new business venture, is faith in yourself! Self-confidence is key to instilling faith in yourself, being positive that you will succeed, soaking up the learning that comes from different opportunities and being receptive to change, uncertainty and the need for transformation, accepting that in the midst of the unknown, you are being prepared for something bigger, better and brighter. We don’t know what the future holds, but we can apply our thinking and confidence to expect nothing but the best from this year, believing in ourselves and determined to do what it takes to succeed. Remember: Self-Confidence + Effort = Transition.

Self-renewal – we all need to constantly reinvent ourselves. Any opportunity cannot be maximized without really understanding how you need to show up to embrace that opportunity. Starting a New Year requires that you take stock of where you are at, what is it that you really want to achieve this year, how you are going to get there. Movement does not happen if you stand still. Change does not happen by chance, unless you create the need, the hunger and the desire to transform your life, you will not create a new journey. True transformation does not happen through osmosis, it is a deliberate attempt to understand what you want and where you are going. Goals are your roadmap. Self-renewal focuses on the new learning, new skills, and the new mindset you need to adopt to transition through your journey. This may mean new behaviours and letting go of undesirable ones, it means learning and unlearning at the same time. Remember: Self renewal + Goals = Change.

Self-mastery – Nothing is bigger than the giant within you. Every day is a learning experience and every day brings a different challenge. No one is perfect and no one can honestly say that they have completely mastered themselves. Keep an open mind to embrace knowledge. This year presents an opportunity to improve your skills, your competencies, to learn something different, to educate yourself, to practice something amazing, to touch lives, to make meaningful contributions. Success attracts success and self-mastery creates more opportunities for success. You are the multiplier, the rainmaker, and the oracle. Your only obstacle is You. Remember: Self-mastery + Knowledge = Transformation.

Self-fulfillment – we need to recognize our greatest ally, our sense of self-worth. Whatever you do this year make a conscious decision not to do anything that compromises your sense of self-fulfillment. Whether professionally or personally, you will have set goals. These goals must be clear, they must have impetus in your life, they must stretch you to be better, they must shape your vision and direct every step you take during this year. Success does not happen through planning alone, it happens through decisive action. Your goals must create a better you in every aspect. It doesn’t help to achieve anything in life if what you have achieved does not add value to your life. Whatever your goals, they must create a sense of self-worth and self-accomplishment. Remember: Self-Fulfillment + Transformation = Success.

Don’t forget to make this year’s journey lighter and exciting by:-

Seeking Inner Guidance

Trust your inner wisdom. You are your best advocate and your best teacher. Sometimes the guidance we seek is already within us. Learn to trust your instincts, understand yourself better and look within for inner guidance. Reflect on what your own inhibitions are, what changes you need to make to master them.

Trusting

When you go to bed at night, you don’t have to worry about whether the sun will rise the next morning. It just does. That’s what faith is about. Believing and trusting that there is a higher purpose for your life and that where you are now is exactly where you are intended to be. Trust that the year will bring greatness, opportunities and brilliance into your life, and be prepared to grab them with both hands.

Completing

You cannot plan for the future without giving your absolute best to the present. Everything in life prepares you for your next step, your next challenge. Completion is an important principle and one that is often taken for granted. You are expected to complete your responsibilities, obligations and commitments, be it in a job, a project or a promise. Think of your life as one big puzzle and every aspect of it that you complete, you fill the puzzle until the whole has been completed and your purpose fulfilled. Don’t wish you were somewhere else, doing something else, in doing so, you are relinquishing the power you have over the “now”. Instead, see it as part of the wider purpose of your life and complete the unfinished aspects of it with vigor, determination and conviction. That positive energy will return to you tenfold.

Diversifying

You cannot grow if you do the same things day in and day out. Embracing a New Year, living your best life means having to rebel against the norms of conformism. It means stretching the boundaries, trying, failing, and trying again. It means understanding everything in your world from every point of view. It does not mean stress free living or guaranteed payouts. It means using your mind in all the ways you can to bring and appreciate different perspectives. Diversity in your thinking creates room for creativity, which in turn creates room for opportunity. Your goals must be diverse enough to stretch you, challenge you, scare you and push you.

Living in Totality

There are many parts of our lives that we will need to focus on this year. Each one presents a different set of obligations and results. How many of us will go through this year completely committed to the goals we set? How many of us will see it as just another unsuccessful attempt? How many of us will wonder where the year went? Some of us will set out many plans and goals and many of us will end up reaching some or none. How do we channel our mind this year and appreciate that each day brings a chance to get closer to achieving our goals? How will we make the best use of our time? We can do this only by being completely present and giving of ourselves in totality to everything it is we are doing. It means being absorbed in the present so that we have shaped a perfect future. The decision, behaviors and goals you set now create the roadmap for the future, you must apply yourself in totality to realize the power of “Now” or else you will have lost the moment forever.

This may be a philosophical approach to goal setting but you already know the technical aspects to setting goals. They must be simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. The majority of effort in realizing the goal is more in your head than it is in your hands. Goals are made real in the space between mind and heart. Once you align your head (knowing what you want), heart (loving what you want) and hands (being ready to put in the effort for what you want), you pave the way for a transition and transformation in your life.

Until our next connect session.