A Time For Gratitude And Reflection
There are things that happened last year. Things that didn’t go the way you wanted them to and, mistakes you’ve made, people who upset you. Your first reaction may be to try to forget them, but I say that’s the exact opposite of what you should do.
The new year is a time for gratitude and reflection upon the events that have transpired in your life. It is not a reset, but a continuation of the person you were last year. If you try to forget all the mistakes and bad things that have happened in your life, you risk the chance of repeating those mistakes.
Learn From Your Past
We have all made mistakes, made bad choices or failed to take action when we should have. It’s time to look back on all the past experiences and see how you can improve on them this year. See what you did right and improve upon it. Look at what went wrong and try to correct them and cut out things that don’t serve you.
Figure out who in your life is bringing you down, and who is lifting you up. Be around those who are supportive of your goals and encourage you when you are down. Spend less time around those who poke fun at your goals and dreams, the ones who encourage you to indulge in habits that are not helpful towards your goals. The joking can seem harmless, but when your just starting towards a goal, those innocent jokes can be detrimental to your progress.
Be Grateful, For The Good And The Bad. Without Light, There can Be No Darkness
With the good comes the bad, and you must accept this as part of life. Do not try to forget the bad, be grateful that you’ve had these challenging times and you are still here. Challenges and hardships are when you find out who you really are. You don’t always overcome them, but you’re still here, and that means there is still a chance for improvement.
Gratitude for the bad doesn’t seem to be common practice in our society, but I would dare say it’s necessary to fully appreciate all the good in our lives. With appreciation for the hardship, obstacles and other undesirable events in our lives , we learn to appreciate ourselves. We can appreciate the person we are now vs the person we were a year ago.
I have had many set backs last year, many of them being financial, but to the best of my ability I always looked forward. There were many goals I wanted to accomplish, many of them seemed out of reach. As I look back on 2014, there were many times where I was tired, broke, sick and felt defeated, regardless of that I kept moving forward. I appreciate all the frustrations and problems I’ve had to solve, because now I have that experience and now I’m better prepared to face those problems again if they were to arise.
You’re Not Going To Get Everything Right The First Time
You’re going to have to learn to deal with the fact that things won’t go exactly the way you want. If you don’t, you will be disappointed more often than not. If you did everything perfectly the first, second or even third time, what would be the point of progress?
Learn To Embrace Failure
Be okay with the fact that your going to fail, a lot. This is a part of progress and it’s an important one. The greats are not born great, they spent hours beating on their craft. They failed over and over again until they got the result they knew they were capable of, and then they worked some more. Each time you fail, there is an opportunity to learn what went wrong. Don’t be afraid of failure, learn to embrace it.
Put Your Resolution In Plain Site
This is arguable one the most important factors in keeping your resolution. How often do you remind yourself of the New Year’s resolution you made? Is it the first thing you think of when you get up, and the last thought before you go to bed? If you don’t think about your life goals on a daily basis, chances are it’s only a matter of time before your goals take the back-burner in this jungle we call life.
Break Down Your Goals
What I’ve done (and I suggest you do something similar), is put a white board right by my work station. I put down all the major goals I want to get done in the year of 2015. By my bed I have another white board with daily goals that work up to my 2015 goals. I have check boxes that I mark off as I complete them. When that board is full I take a snapshot of it and then start off fresh.
Having your big goals where you can see them is a great start, but there a small steps needed to get to those bigger goals. Break down your goals into small chunks that will over time, add up to the big picture. Put those in plain site so that you are reminded of them every day. Let the smaller goals be your road map towards the endgame.
Don’t Talk About it, Do It
So many times I’ve come across people who say they’re going to do this or that, and by the end of the year all they have is excuses. Don’t be that person. Your New Year’s resolutions are just that, yours, and you had them for a reason. We all have the impulse to talk about our goals and that’s fine, but there has to be more action than talking . Show people your progress after you’ve done it, rather than telling them what you “gonna” do. You’re worth the work that needs to get done to be where you want to be in life, and when you do, the future you will be thankful.