With the new year looming on the horizon, it is an important time to reflect on the past year.
The year 2009 was a difficult one for many with the recession leading to job cutbacks or loss affecting income and therefore lifestyle. It seems everyone felt the ripple affect in some way.
Putting aside the doom and gloom of the year, what personal goals did you achieve? What new places did you discover? What challenges made you stronger and therefore led you to a new path?
We’ve all heard the expression: “Everything happens for a reason.” Even though the reason is not always apparent for awhile, every challenge or major obstacle in our life does seem to be followed by a new door opening to lead us in a different direction. Sometimes this new direction is not what’d we’d planned for our life or ever thought we’d do, but with time we see what a positive impact it has.
Challenges do make us stronger.
Once the frustration and anger disappears we can find some clarity in our thinking and see a way around the obstacle. Let’s choose to see the good that has come from overcoming these obstacles.
What new path has it led you on?
If you travelled to any new places this year, consider the impact that had on you. Perhaps the new experience led you to discover something about yourself.
My travels this year led me to discover a new place I’d like to live, which may start a chain of reaction of events that may lead me down a new road. That’s the beauty of travel and new experiences – often it leaves you with some sort of impact that begins a ripple of change or a ‘seed’ that gets planted that may later grow into a tree of change.
Thankfully life is full of surprises, or how boring it would be!
Did you begin 2009 with a goal list or new year’s resolutions? If you wrote your goals down, take a minute to have a look at them now. You may be pleasantly surprised by how many you have achieved.
Take time out of your busy schedule to reflect on your yearly accomplishments.
Often the little things we did add up to bring us closer to achieving a bigger goal, but we don’t take the time to give ourselves credit or acknowledge just how far we’ve come.
This is your time to celebrate, to reflect and be grateful. Bring in the new year in style with a positive expectant attitude for all the wonderous new experiences, places you’ll discover and challenges that it will bring.
Obstacles do make you stronger and inevitably change your path – enjoy the journey. Happy New Year!
Lacombe freelance columnist Judy Holt is a wellness consultant and author of 1 Potato, 2 Potato, Couch Potato to You.