As we approach the New Year, it is a valuable practice to set aside some personal time to look back on 2010 and assess where we have been, and to look ahead at 2011 and lay out where we are going.  I have created the following exercises to help you walk through this reflective process, and hope you make the commitment to yourself to complete it.  Enjoy!

2010 Assessment

What are your disappointments, failures, and breakdowns?

Let’s acknowledge what these items are.  All failures are feedback.  This is an opportunity to learn from them and let them go, or carry them forward and make a new promise or commitment.  Reverend Michael Beckwith offers three strategies for change to keep in mind:

• Accept what is
• Harvest the good
• Forgive all the rest

What are your successes, wins, and accomplishments?

This is a chance to celebrate and own who you have become this year.  Where did you step into your power and greatness?  Please don’t skimp on these.  The little stuff counts.  No modesty allowed.  Let’s validate all your accomplishments.  You might want to look through your organizer and any of your files to help remind you.  Remember to looks at your accomplishments in all the aspects of your life, such as:

• Health
• Relationships
• Finances
• Career/Creative expression
• Spirituality

What have you learned about yourself and your life?  What insights have you gained?

True insights have the transformational capability of shifting us into a new, more alive place.  As we are blessed with insights, it is important to nurture and deepen these new understandings.  Inventory your learnings in the last year in the following categories:

• Growth in understanding
• New perspectives
• Letting go
• Shifts in beliefs

What are you grateful for?

This list might include some of the above, as well as things you truly appreciate about the people, the things, and the circumstances in your life last year.  And don’t forget to include the things you appreciate about yourself.  There is a basic principle: whatever you appreciate and give thanks for will increase in your life.

How will you celebrate and honor 2010?

This is an opportunity to do something that honors all you have done, been through, and grown this past year.  What’s something special that you would like to do for yourself?  What would be a powerful way to celebrate?  What would be fun?  Celebrating is a way to bring completion, and there are countless ways to do it.  The key is to choose something, plan it, and do it.

2011 New Year Creation

This is your vision or dream for 2011.  Picture yourself one year from today, one year into the future, having had an incredible year.  Think about what kinds of things might have happened during the past year, and what it was like for you.  Now write a short story about who you were and what you accomplished in 2011, as if you were writing it at the end of 2011.

Some things you might include:

• What was the year like for you?

• What did you feel energy and excitement around?

• What did you accomplish?  What did you get? What did you do? Who were you being?

• Who was in your life and who was not?

• Where are you financially?

• Where are you spiritually?

• What has changed in your physical environment?

• What were the big fun things you did?

• What is the condition of your career?

• How is your love life?

• What’s one outrageous or wacky element to your vision?

• What did you let go of?

• What did you take less seriously?

• What old rules or limiting beliefs did you eliminate?

Include anything else you might think of that stands out for the year.  When finished, print a copy, seal it in an envelope, and file it somewhere in your home or office for you to read in one year.  Mark down on your calendar one year from today where you have filed this envelope, so you can find it and read it on that day.  And have fun with this.

As always, I’m here to support you in your journey, and would enjoy knowing how you’re doing and get any feedback you may have (cecily@coachcecily.com).

To a transformational 2011,

Coach Cecily

2011 · goal setting · new year exercise · new year resolution

Every morning when I walk my dog, Chewie, along the ocean, we stop and visit a homeless man who sits in the same spot each day.  John is a town institution and many people come by to chat with him, buy him coffee, and, in the summer, play chess with him.

On Christmas Eve, Chewie and I delivered loaves of cranberry bread to my neighbors.  It filled my heart to go house to house and share the spirit of Christmas with them.  This Christmas morning on our usual walk, we brought a loaf of cranberry bread to John.  He was thrilled, and said it was his favorite and it had been years since he had had any.  I was delighted, too, but the best part was the reaction of a stranger walking by.  This woman, who witnessed our exchange, stopped and spontaneously, with a broad smile and tears in her eyes, gave me a big Merry Christmas hug!

In my book “7 Ways to Stay Positive in Challenging Times” I talk about the benefits of helping others, and how research has shown the when you do, you feel good, the recipient feels good, and, by the way, anyone witnessing it feels good, too.  Today, I experienced that first hand, and it showed me the true meaning of Christmas.

May your Christmas be filled with the blessings of love and light!

Coach Cecily

Christmas · Kindness · meaning of Christmas

Hemal Radia · Law of Attraction · LOA