Start As You Mean to Go On
I woke up this year optimistic, feeling that life is brimming with possibilities, looking forward to the future and bubbling with ideas. I am looking forward to 2009. Louise Hay (see this month’s recommendation) says that we should make the decision every year that THIS year will be the best year of our lives. And for the last 10 years, I have been working up to that decision. Before that, I would look at the year gone by and weakly hope that this next year would somehow magically improve.
Bizarrely enough, until I actually started to make some changes and make decisions about what I wanted from life, life didn’t magically change. It took a decision that I wouldn’t live that way any more, that I would ‘do something’ to make life different. So I threw out the old ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ and started to plan my life, set intentions for my life, let myself dream about how life could be.
I’ve often had to work at feeling optimistic as I’d spent at least 15 years turning myself into a dyed in the wool pessimist, but this year the optimism bubbled through with the dawning of a New Year. I had started how I fully intend to continue the year. Did your year start as you would like it to continue? Or do you want to make a decision now to make this the best year of your life so far, and take action today to start as you mean to go on in 2009?
On New Year’s Day, I put a poem on the blog – I Promise Myself by Christian D Larsen – go and read it if you haven’t already. Copy and paste the text, print it out and put it up on your wall. I have. It says everything about how I want to spend this year. For today, I will just pull out the one line “To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.” As my optimism was there waiting for me on the 1st, I think I owe it to do my best to make it come true.
You may not be feeling the joys of a New Year, after all it’s cold, it’s dark (in my hemisphere anyway), you may be broke after Christmas. But you do have a whole New Year stretching out ahead of you, where you can either weakly hope that someone will wave a magic wand over your life, or you can grab hold of that wand and cast a spell over your own life. Start 2009 as you mean to continue it – and I wish you all the love, luck and laughter you deserve this year.
Something to play with
Every moment is a chance to begin something new – if you were to start this year as you mean to go on, what will you do today to make your life amazing?
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A note from Donna
I hope you guys had a lovely holiday, and are feeling refreshed and ready for a New Year. I have, of course, had far too much to eat, watched far too much TV and although my brain is raring to go, my body is still in hibernation mode. Maybe I’ll fool it this time next year with a trip to Sydney for the New Year fireworks? Anyway, I wish you all the joy you can pack into this year, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you’re up to in the coming months and sharing what I am up to.