Out with the old, In with the New

The end of another year has come. Take time today to reflect on your past year. Celebrate all your accomplishments by taking a deep breathe and letting it out with a big thank you into the air. Let the winds carry your gratitude silently and gracefully to all its destinations. To wherever, whatever, and to whoever it was that helped make your accomplishments possible.

It’s also time to look at the failed attempts and mistakes. Take another deep breathe and let it out with another big thank you into the air. Let the winds carry your gratitude to everyone, everything, and every place that provided you the opportunity to learn what does work for you, and to grow from it. All of us would benefit by using that knowledge to deal with situations we mishandled in the past. But we must remember that whatever mistakes we made, we made with only the knowledge and resources that we had then, and we may have done about as well as we possibly could have at that time. Going forward, say to your self: “I'll live fully today, allowing no thoughts of regret from my past to intrude.” – Walking in Dry Places. Or what one of my clients always says to his peers, “When you know better, you will do better.”

It’s also time to set some goals, or resolutions, for the year to come. If you’re anything like me, you have probably tried every way possible that you can think of to follow through, with either very little success or by really busting your ass to make it happen. The other morning I was reading of my favorite daily motivational websites, The Daily Motivator, by Ralph Marston, and he wrote something that just blew me away. I never thought of looking at goal setting this way. I was so excited about it that, that same day, I asked a client if they would be willing to give it a test run. So I mapped out one of their goals this way. We both had an “ah-ha moment.” Not only did it sound good it was so much easier to create.

Ok, ok I know the suspense is killing you. I will leave you, on the last day of 2009, with the wonderful words from Ralph Marston:

Think backwards
When you're planning to travel, where do you usually begin that planning? You begin with the destination.

You cannot know what direction to go unless you know where you would like to end up. So a successful plan begins with the destination and works its way backwards to the point where you begin.

When you desire to reach a specific goal, the same kind of approach will work very well. Start with the end goal, and develop your plan backwards from there.

When you're clear about the goal, you can easily figure out what would be the last step necessary to reach that goal. When you know the last step, you can determine what the step before that will be.

You can develop your plan, step by step, from the end to the beginning. When you do, instead of wondering what the best first step would be, you'll know precisely what to do first, what to do after that, and what to do after that.

However ambitious the goal may be, there is something you can do right now to get off to a solid start. Visualize the goal, work backwards step by step, and you'll know precisely how to begin.


--Ralph Marston

Have a SAFE and Happy New celebration
&
MANY BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL IN THE NEW YEAR!!!

(Usual disclaimer applies, with emphasis: The suggestions on this blog are just that “SUGGESTIONS.” My words cannot heal your pain and or addictions. Nor can I change your life. Only you can.)

To read daily motivations visit http://backtothebasicsplease.com/wordpressIf you are not sure how to begin your work-in or need some guidance please feel free to post a comment or email me directly at thework-in@hotmail.com, I will response as soon as I can.

“We can overcome if we change the way we See: See ourselves, See our past, See our possibilities.” Daniel Beaty -Emergence See-