Well, here it is, the New Year. What will it be filled with? What will we let it be filled with?
As I write this, it is day one of a brand spanking new year. Right now, it’s a year filled with hopes and promises. As it unfolds we’ll know if those promises came true, and if our hopes have been fulfilled. We’ll know if is a year of happiness or tragedy and sadness.
We wonder what the year promises us. But what will we promise the year? New Year’s resolutions are the joke that we make. We feel it is time to turn over a new leaf, but invariably we all crawl back under that leaf as we can’t commit to what we promise.
Maybe it is time to change. To do that we need will power. The first thing we need to promise to do is change ourselves. Without creating change within ourselves, things outside ourselves will not change. Like too many people, I need to lose weight. Being too heavy affects the quality of my work, and my ability to do my work. I need to make a change within myself so I can affect change outside of me. If I can do my work better, I can help others who in turn can make changes outside of themselves, and in turn help others.
Now, weight is but one of the things I need to deal with. We all have many things that need attending to. We need to stop procrastinating now. It is time to move ahead.
So I feel that at the beginning of this year, we need to start looking inside ourselves before we can look outside. Yes, there are lots of things going on outside of us. Some of them we have control over, but most we don’t. Our ability to face them comes from within. If we don’t have a firm, healthy foundation, we can’t stand against the onslaught of problems. In fact we’ll see them as problems instead of opportunities.
So, start by looking inside. When you do, give yourself the will power to fulfill and keep your promises. Next figure out what you need to accomplish. Make your goals (and make them realistic). After that, make a plan. It’s nice to have goals, but we’ll never get there if we don’t have a plan. Next, start on your plan and be strong and stick to it. We need to be our own parents or bosses telling us what to do, and what is good and what is not. We need to guide ourselves and follow our own instructions. We need to please only ourselves. We tend to set standards for ourselves higher than we set for others, and for this, that is a good thing.
Eventually, we’ll change ourselves. In doing that, we’ll change things around us and fill this new year with positive achievements. Eventually, we’ll change the world. All it takes is a promise to yourself, and the will power to keep it. You have that strength. Use it.