This week, between Christmas and New Years Day, is the time of year when many people look back over the past year and plan for the new one.
I’m a planner. I love being organized. I’ve even designed a special planner for my coaching clients, that includes the daily practices of the DreamBuilder program.
As Mary Morrissey likes to say, if it’s not on the calendar, it’s not real.” Your energy is more powerful when it’s channeled. Like water...when it’s in a pool it just sits there but when it’s channeled through a pipe it has the power to move and change things.
That being said, there’s one recommended practice that I’ve never been comfortable with and that’s the suggestion to spend a considerable amount of time looking back at the past year. Some people suggest that you go through your journal, or calendar or emails...whatever records you have to jog your memory and then list out what you accomplished, what didn’t get accomplished and lessons you’ve learned.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing this and I’m sure a lot of people benefit from doing it. I wonder how many people actually do it.
The potential pitfall in my mind is how the ego or the monkey mind handles it. Are you going to have to invest a lot of time and energy in restoring your peace of mind after doing this? There might be a tendency to beat yourself up over the things you didn’t accomplish, or wallow in regret over disappointment about things that didn’t turn out the way you had hoped.
If you are having to go back through the whole year at year’s end, because you didn’t track your goals and progress throughout the year, you are probably not going to like what you see... because when we aren’t focused in the present moment, we tend to drift As Mary Morrissey, the creator of the DreamBuilder Program likes to say, no wind is favorable to a sailor who has no destination in mind.”
There are several reasons I don’t don’t do a year end review.
1. The first reason that I don’t do a review of my past year is that it’s over and done and I don’t see the value of looking backward. Do you drive your car by focusing on your rear view mirror? You may look back briefly but that’s it.
2. The next reason is that monkey mind or Ego, that gets all agitated when looking at the past. If it gets going about things we didn’t accomplish or events and people that disappointed us, we have to do the work to change our perspective in order to feel good again - to get our energy back to a positive vibration. Why even go there? I think the time is better spent on moving forward.
3. And the final reason I don’t revisit my journal is that my mentor Bijan Anjomi, showed me the wisdom of not looking back. He doesn’t even have pictures on the wall of relatives who have passed because he says, the Ego will try to make you feel sad. He said that if it makes you feel good, then go for it but if it doesn’t don’t. Whatever makes you feel peace. Choose that.
With the DreamBuilder perspective and practices there’s no need for New Year’s resolutions. It’s such a great way to live!
There’s no shame, no blame, no beating yourself up, no struggling with burdensome resolutions, just the joy of your vision for the life you would absolutely love and the adventure of creating it.
Does that sound good to you?
Has this podcast episode caused you to change the way you look at New Year’s Day?
I’d love to know...join the discussion and let us know your thoughts at dreambigandbloom.com
And if you have a burning question you’d like me to answer on a future episode, just post it in the comments too.
