January 2011 Newsletter www.ComposeYourLife.ca IN THIS ISSUE 1.       New Year’s Wishes ... 2.       Starting with the End in Mind 3.       Quotable Quotes NEW YEAR’S WISHES ... This Newsletter comes to you bearing my warm wishes for the New Year - wishes for health and joy, fulfillment and abundance. I am writing this from bed at a New Orleans B&B, hoping to cast off a nasty head cold in order to return to the festivities with my extended family who have gathered here for a holiday reunion. So my first wish for all of us is definitely health! It’s interesting to see how the New Year is celebrated around the globe, with each location observing the traditions and values of their culture. While many people feel the New Year automatically brings good luck, others pray hard for prosperity. African Americans are known to hold 'watch services' in their churches, and benne (sesame) wafers are presented to all as a symbol of money, future prosperity and fortune. Similarly in Greece, a sweet New Year’s bread is baked by all the family members with a coin buried in the dough - a very auspicious symbol of good luck and fortune for the year to come. In Denmark, people underscore friendship by saving up old dishes and then throwing them at the entrance of friend’s homes on New Year’s Eve. It is believed that one has as many friends as the number of broken dishes: the more the merrier! Thinking about our celebrations and traditions can help define what is truly important to us – be it just “having fun” or implementing changes. How do you usher in the New Year? And what are your wishes for yourself, your loved ones and your community? STARTING WITH THE END IN MIND   “We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day. “                                                                                     --- Edith Lovejoy Pierce One of the common practices at this time of year is to come up with a list of New Year’s Resolutions. Although it has been said that a New Year's resolution is "something that goes in one year and out the other", we generally have a fascination with the idea of a fresh start – a blank page on which to re-write the story of our life for the year to come. Typical resolutions are to get in better shape, to quit smoking or to lose weight after the excesses of the holiday season. And yet by mid-February many of those new gym memberships are remaining unused and the Resolutions are already long abandoned...   So perhaps instead of focusing immediately on the first blank page, we could jump to the very last page and imagine how we would like the final chapter of the year to end. When asking ourselves what would be the most important accomplishment we would like to see, we need to also clarify why it is important to us. After this it becomes simple to define the incremental steps involved in moving backwards from the end toward the starting point. Focusing on the inherent values provides long-term motivation; it allows us to remain objective about our behaviour and it gets us out of black-and-white/ everything-or-nothing thinking.   Imagine, for instance, missing a few days’ workout at the gym. With the magnifying glass focusing  on “the problem”, it is a short step to thinking that there is no point in carrying on, that we are weak-willed and simply doomed to failure (think again of all those abandoned gym memberships!).  Next, switch to focusing on the end result and the original big picture view from the skybox returns, uniting thoughts and feelings on what IS desired ... be it improved health, looking great or generally feeling better. Most importantly, this technique ensures the return of a sense of possibility, without which there is no likelihood of successful completion.   The other element which has been proven to facilitate successful goal achievement is that of accountability. Declaring your goals and your commitment to them out loud - and knowing you’re not alone in the process - contributes greatly to maintaining resolutions. What better time to enlist the support of a qualified partner? So if you or anyone you know are interested in moving forward and effecting changes with the support and accompaniment of a certified Personal Life Coach, feel free to contact me for a complimentary coaching session: info@ComposeYourLife.ca. And may you have a truly wonderful New Year which reflects your most cherished dreams and makes your heart sing!   QUOTABLE QUOTES   For last year's words belong to last year's language And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning. --- T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"   We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.  --- Ellen Goodman   The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul. --- G.K. Chesterton   An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. --- Bill Vaughan     *********************************************************** If you liked my Newsletter, please forward it to a friend - it is the highest compliment you could pay me! You can also allow friends to subscribe by forwarding this link: http://www.composeyourlife.ca/.  Thanks!