Six Rs for the festive season

In what is the last blog post for this year, I’d like to show my appreciation to loyal readers by offering you a simple approach to make the new year ahead a truly special one.

Forget about New Year’s resolutions. For many reasons, they don’t work.

To effect real and meaningful change you have to look within, firstly to understand what change it is that you want and secondly to appreciate that you, and you alone, have the capacity to manifest what you want.

Here’s some advice, in the form of what I call the Six Rs, that you can follow as you move into the festive season this year:

[box type=\”shadow\”]“For last year\’s words belong to last year\’s language. And next year\’s words await another voice.”

― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets [/box]

 

Relax

Ironically, this time of the year can be quite stressful if you let it be. But that’s exactly what you don’t want at the end of a busy and eventful year.

Make it your priority to allow yourself plenty of authentic relaxation time in between all the other things you have to do over the festive season.

True relaxation comes when you are able to shut off all the “I should be doing …” and “I ought to be doing …” voices in your head and feel comfortable just having a little time out to yourself.

Rejoice

Be thankful for the opportunity to relax. Focus on all the wonderful things that you have to be grateful for and for the personal growth and development that you have experienced as a result of all that has happened (both ‘good’ and ‘bad’) during the course of the year.

Think of ten things that have made you happy this year. Now think of another ten. Keep going!

Reflect

While you’re in this ‘happy space’ start to reflect on who you are, where you’re at, where you would rather be and how you might get to where you’d rather be.

Ask yourself whether you have left your mark on this year or whether it has left it’s mark on you? To what extent have you taken responsibility for everything that has happened as opposed to being passive and allowing things to happen to you?

What dreams do you have for the year ahead? What action would it take on your part to make those dreams come true? What resources can you summon up to help make things happen the way you want? How can you take personal responsibility and control over making your dreams come true?

Re-think

Did you achieve what you set out to this year?

If so, why were you successful and how can you build on this success? If not, then what do you need to change to bring about different results next year?

What big ideas do you have that could be ‘game changing’ for you in the year ahead? What fears will you have to conquer to have the courage to put those big ideas into action? How will you do this and who can you approach to help you with this?

What small actions can you take this week to prepare the groundwork for a great year ahead?

Re-energise

You may not feel it but you have boundless energy within you. It’s just waiting to be tapped and you can do that by taking the first small steps towards living the life you want.

Work that you do because “you have to” or “you ought to” or you feel you “should do” as a favour or service to others will sap your energy and close down your creativity.

Work that you do because “it makes your heart sing” or because it is fulfilling and meaningful or simply because you love to do it, is not really work at all. It is your calling and it will energise you and spark your creative talents.

Think about what it is you love to do. Enjoy the surge of joy and energy that comes from simply thinking about this.

Visualise doing what you love to do. Build a detailed picture in your mind of how it would feel and what it would look like. Now resolve to create a vision board that will represent the life you want to live with pictures, diagrams, quotes and illustrations that help you to hold your vision.

Look around you. What small item is there that might symbolise your new life and that could be the first element of your vision board? A feather perhaps, a sea shell, a pebble, a flower, a sprig of herb or a piece of cloth?

Look closely at your symbol and feel the energy that you get from thinking about what it represents to you.

Resolve

Resolve not to make any silly New Year’s resolutions this coming year but rather to build a plan of action for getting to where you want to be.

Resolve to look at your vision board or grasp your chosen symbol when day-to-day life sets in next year and you feel the energy start to drain from you.

Resolve to take personal responsibility for making the changes you know you need to.

Resolve to make your mark on the year ahead!