It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and I’m feeling good…
Happy New Year! It’s a new me, it’s a new you … There’s something special about this time of year, right? January sings with renewed hope. There’s fresh air in our lungs. The collective consciousness is upbeat. We get to turn over to a blank page and and start anew.
Right now the media is lit up with articles about goals and such things and naturally, I would like to contribute my two cents. I’ve written about achievement and manifesting before, which you can access by clicking here and here, but the truth is I’m not that much of a New Year’s resolution maker. I’m more of a year-round minute-by-minute resolver and I am always interested in this kind of thing. Sometimes it feels like trying to change certain behaviours of mine is like trying to alter my DNA though. Know what I mean? But we persist! Why? Because there are things we want to do and experiences we want to have – right? And there is often only one thing standing in your way – yourself.
So I present you with a few strategies I have come across recently, in the hope that these will help carry your goals and desires past January and see them bear fruit in the Spring.
The first one is from Wayne Dyer’s Real Magic :
Take an inventory of your life
Perhaps there are some attitudes and behaviours that are preventing you from having the life or relationships you desire, but focusing on what we don’t want just brings more of it into our life – duh everyone knows that! So create an inventory of those behaviours and attitudes that you continue to pursue but do not want in your life. Then create an inventory of what you would like to replace them with. Voila! Satori!
I created a list of 10 things. In 2014 I am letting go of homesickness and feelings of hopelessness and taking up keeping in touch more, appreciating what is here now and focusing on solutions. I am giving up wasting time with mindless TV and insatiable zapping and scrolling (amongst other things) and getting into good reads, more celebrating and high quality procrastinating. My motto for 2014 is Procrastinate Better! Everyone procrastinates – some people just do it better.
Another thing I’m doing is celebrating each day. This was Gina DeVee’s advice (God I love her!). She calls it ‘bookending’ the day and it’s particularly useful for those working from home – like solopreneurs and stay-at-home parents. It’s way too easy for work to slide into the evening and for us to never plug out. So have a glass of champagne or a cup of tea at least and enjoy the night! Should be easy…
Relax and celebrate – how hard can it be?
Ha! The internet has a way of sneaking up on us. That’s why I liked this next piece of advice from Jia Ni Teo :
Set boundaries
Jia Ni gives the example of a declaration, ‘For the next four days I am committed to writing my e-book and I will only check my Facebook/Twitter/Email once a day.’
I like this, I really do. If you don’t have an iPhone or something similar, you may not have the same love hate relationship with your mobile device. It is akin to crack in its ability to posses your mind (I imagine). Just one hit – that’s all it takes. But it’s so handy! I love being in touch. And so it goes. So yesterday I had twelve things on my to-do list and Facebook/Instagram was at number 11. At the time of writing this, number 11 had stopped me from idly scanning several times. So will it work? Oh God, I don’t know. I might have been a bit extreme there. Three hours of writing is easy-peasy – but a whole day! Watch this space.
We can set boundaries around any goal. I find I need the constant reminder though and stick these things up where I can see them. Though I must warn that it can be embarrassing when your friends come over and want to nose around your desk (yes Carla, I’m talking about you).
So we know what we want, we know what we have to do and then comes the actual doing of the stuff – which can be overwhelming when added to the pile of things we already need to do from day-to-day. That’s why I found this next strategy from Gala Darling rather enlightening :
Prioritise
Gala Darling has written many articles on making the new year magic and the one I found most useful to me right now was on the ABCDE method of getting stuff done. Basically, you write a master list of EVERYTHING you have to do on an A4 sheet of paper. From this you break the items down day-by-day and write your to-do list for the next day (so that your subconscious can be working away at them overnight). With your master list and list for the next day, you then categorise the activities into :
A tasks are very important. If you don’t do them, there are serious consequences.
B tasks are things that you should do. If you bump them a day, there will be mild consequences, but nothing major.
C tasks are things that are nice to do, but have no real consequences if you miss them. Common C tasks include catching up with friends or returning social phone calls.
D tasks are things that you should delegate.
E tasks are activities that you should eliminate from your routine. Yes!!!
Write the category (A-E) next to the item, then take a new piece of paper & rank them, with A tasks at the top & E tasks at the bottom. If you have more than one A task, prioritise them (A1, A2, etc.) & put them in order.
Now, here’s the trick: never complete a B activity before an A activity.
As Gala says,
It is horrifyingly easy to keep ourselves occupied with little tasks & mindless busywork, & while it can feel satisfying to do these things — like reply to email, tidy our desk, etc. — ultimately it keeps us from doing the things that are really important.
We can have what we want, but we need to be clear about what we are going for at this moment. If we have clarity, we need not go into overwhelm. And when we are truly working on something that brings us joy, we feel at peace.
And never underestimate the brilliance of our subconscious minds! When our subconscious knows there’s a problem to be solved or work to be done, it totally gets down to work, tinkering away while we sleep or take a break. I experience this all the time with my writing. It’s always miraculously easier on the second day and if I stick to my creative dates, my subconscious rewards me with ease and flow. There’s no need to get stressed out if things aren’t working. Just go to sleep. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about this too in her Ted talk (so it must be true).
The next one is an oldy but a goody and it helps us get clear on what those big dreams are :
Envision it
Go on! You know you want to. Everyone’s doing it right now. Why? Because it’s fun. Get yo’ vision board on! I did it last year, though, as I was in short supply of magazines, I didn’t have too many pictures. Of course you can also do this on Pinterest and of course, I do, but again I like to have it above my desk to remind and uplift me throughout the day (and again this is embarrassing when people enter my zone – I know I’m not the only conscientious weirdo out there but it is odd that I’m now revealing my secret business here).
Reflecting on the past year, I can see that quite a bit of it has come true. I tapped into 3 feelings I desired to feel for the year and then chose pictures that emulated each one.
One of the feelings was Presence and I stuck this one under it :
I ended up in Lombok at a hotel that looked similar AND I had spiritual healing in Perth. I didn’t even know what spiritual healing was when I put it up!
Under Freedom I had this picture :
To me, train travel means freedom and I loved the sophistication of this woman in her burgundy onesie pulling her matching suitcase elegantly through the old-school train carriage. As it happened, I went on a five-week trip to France, travelling by train all the way and getting mega deals to go first class. The only thing missing was the petite valise – mine was just as obese as its ever been. In 2014 I let go of overpacking.
This year I’ll dream bigger. Why not?
Tonya Leigh says
Instead of focusing on what you think needs to be fixed – your weight, bank account, relationship status – incubate yourself in your dreams. Think about how you desire your life to look and feel. Keep your dreams at the forefront of your life. Let go of how or when. Just dream and believe. And remember what Ray Charles said, “Dreams, if they’re any good, are always a little bit crazy. ”
But after all is said and done, we must not forget to :
Let go
The odour of desperation is never cool. And it doesn’t help us get what we want.
‘If you want something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it was meant to be.’
I used that one to console many a broken heart in my teens (my own heart I mean), and it is also true for our dreams. Of course take action, but then let go of how you imagine it will be or when you demand it to happen by. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learnt along the way. Perhaps it will be better than you dreamed or perhaps something different is meant for you.
So says Belinda Davidson in her recent post on Magic and Miracles in 2014. Get aligned, feel good now and then hand your wishes over and get on with your life. I myself have experienced exactly this. Some years ago I found a list of 10 things I wanted that had been written a year or more before and I’d forgotten about. But I had all the things on the list! Passed on, refurbished and bought.
Lately I’ve been more interested in being in alignment than anything else. When we are in alignment we are living on purpose, going with the flow, intuitive, grounded and not reactionary and we just know that all is well and all will be well. What’s not to like?
If you would like a guided meditation to help you get aligned, I am totally in love with this one right now (click that link) from The Reach Approach. Heal the planet with your light!
There you go peeps, that’s my two cents. Don’t worry be happy. We can twerk our behaviour and attitude at any moment of the day. If we fall down the rabbit hole, we just climb back out and keep going. It doesn’t matter if we come off our centre, what matters is how quickly we get back to it. Don’t wait for tomorrow. At any moment we can start again.
We are beings capable of incredible things, with vast resources and healing powers. We are intuitive, kind and enlightened, full of compassion, insight and clarity. And all will be well. All will be well.
I’d like to know : What are your methods for making miracles and magic in 2014?
Wonderlust 