Bang the gong, ring the bell, blow the conch, and welcome the new year!
2007 brings the fresh promise of new perspectives and opportunities for abundance, health and life balance.
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
~ Lao Tzu
Starting Fresh is A Choice
The past is past, the year is over, and the turn of time is just an indicator that we have a choice to be something new, to release what we used to be, do or believe and spin a new belief, a new plan and a new reality for ourselves. From 2006, we can inventory our accumulated strengths from challenges met and overcome, trials survived and courage/compassion amplified - and let that which holds no value for us - grudges, disappointments, resentments, etc. - let these things be left in the past. I hope this New Year brings a reminder that you create your own life - in fact, where you are now in your life is where you have brought yourself - the sum of your actions and thoughts. If you want to be at a next level with your personal, professional, financial, physical or spiritual life, you can choose to get on a new path to a new destination, today.
Eliminate Drag Coefficient
Why bring old baggage into a fresh new year? I have my own exercise using Timeline Therapy - going through my year 2006 - from January to December and back again, taking inventory of the highs and the lows, and releasing any negative emotional charges from any recalled event by assuming a meta-perspective and noting what it is I was supposed to learn from that event. I repeat this until I can look back on my year and see nothing but learning, growth and wisdom.
Identity Crisis
For me, December is always a time of deep reflection and planning, and it almost always brings me to a strange feeling of identity crisis. I meditate on what I have done throughout the year, I think about my goals, and who I've been, and I find myself wondering "what next?" I've always looked forward to change, even the most drastic changes in my life, because such transitions afford me fresh challenges and unexplored territory. I feel the same way when I travel - I like to be dropped into a new situation, a new city, and navigate my way through instinct - and make new maps for myself. There's been a lot achieved in this past year, but I'm not one to rest on my laurels. There's always something new, something more, and a next level to conquer. Sometimes, attaining these next levels requires letting go of old definitions of myself, and especially any limiting beliefs.
Refresh, Redesign and Redefine your Goals
Goals need to be refreshed on a regular basis - sometimes they need to be adapted to new situations, sometimes they need to be redefined or redesigned. Its easy for goals to be lost or obscured by the mundane tasks and daily grind. It's important to take time to clearly visualize your goals, endowing them with amply specificity of detail, color and vibrance to inspire you to strive. When you lose the clarity of your goal, you lose focus, and are prone to distraction and demotivation.
Manifest Your Vision
Who hasn't heard about the Law of Attraction? In sum, what you think about is what you attract. What you focus on, grows. If you're walking down the street, telling yourself "don't fall, don't fall, don't fall" you'll probably fall. Your thoughts create your reality, so it's important that what you focus on is not only positive, but optimal. It's amazing how this has worked in my own life - for the good or for the bad, it never fails. But I've proven to myself, as many of my clients have, that clear goal visualization and a commitment to holding the most optimal thoughts about our desires - ends up attracting amazing opportunities. Last year I committed to some definite writing goals, which ended up manifesting a screenplay, which was produced into a film, which parlayed into assignments in writing mobile video series in Asia, which led to an amazing article about me in Scr(i)pt Magazine this year. This year, I've already been commissioned to write new projects. It's amazing how dedication to an intention helped a dilettante turn pro.
Snap out of Negative States - Look Up and Be Grateful
Counting your blessings puts you in the perfect mindset to attract what you want. Feeling the abundance of all you have achieved and all you have been given is empowering and reminds you of what's good in your life, and how life can be even sweeter, and better. There's something hard-wired in us, that when we look up, we can stop ourselves from crying and calm down. That could be because we break out of whatever thought-loop was keeping us in a negative state by simply changing visual perspective - but it's also because when we look up - whether to the right or to the left, our eyes are helping us to access creative states of mind - creatively visualizing something new, or visually recalling a memory. There is power in this ability to visualize - especially when coupled with inspiring thoughts - visualizing your "happy place" or something pleasant, something worth striving for. I find that that the most powerful use of this visualizing ability to change emotional state is to look up at the sky and think of all I am grateful for - like a flash montage. There are so many things to be grateful for - love, art, music, opportunities, friendships, family, and the simple and profound pleasures of being alive. This past year, I am most thankful that my husband has finally emigrated to the US from England (in September) and as of the beginning of November, I found out I am pregnant and will be expecting my first child in August of this year!
Make a commitment to productivity - get organized!
So often we are motivated by red-flag items - stuff we've been putting off, things we've forgotten about which end up biting us in the ass later on. Make a small investment of time, energy and money in yourself, and get organized! This doesn't just mean all the papers on your desk, but get everything in your head OUT of your head and into a trusted system, where you collect, clarify, organize, review and DO something with every idea and task that comes your way. It's so easy to get demotivated when it feels like you aren't organized. When you devote time to knowing how/when to do what you have to do, you can gain a level of control that frees up stress and especially mindspace for higher levels of creativity. If this is something that interests you, my next group workshop on Organization/Productivity is on January 14th! Feel free to contact me for details.
"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty...Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Moving on, moving forward.
Hi, Carmen! I read about you in Script magazine and just had to check out your blog. Don't hear too many references to Pinay writers in the mainstream media!
I'm completely with you on examining the old year in order to create your vision of your life and self in the new. I'm starting with the simple (organizing my desk, which helps to clear out not just the physical space but the mental space), and moving towards the more complicated, specifically my writing goals for 2007. I'm so inspired by your own journey to creative fulfillment and am looking forward to hearing more about your work in the new year.
Cheers,
MRA
Posted by: Marjorie R. Asturias | January 15, 2007 at 02:34 PM