New Beginnings

The new year approaching! There are so many things racing through my mind and so many things that I wanted to accomplish this year. Time is constant, life continues regardless if you finish a task or not. While it is important to try and reach your “finish line” you must understand that not everything will go as planned and you should make room for adjustments otherwise you will only be focusing on the failures. New Years is a perfect time to focus on new beginnings and start fresh. Don’t worry about what you did not accomplish instead learn from it. Those things are not within your reach and you can’t go back in time to change anything. The best thing you can do is look on the bright side and appreciate the goodness in your life.

Look at the past year and all that you have accomplished, and set new goals as you move forward. It’s important to reflect on the past, but don’t get stuck in it. There is a lot you can learn from studying the past, it doesn’t hurt to look back and accept the things you weren’t so proud of, they will help you make better decisions in the future. At the same time, there isn’t much you can do to change it either so you must accept it as it is and keep on keepin on. The only way to move forward is to come to terms with what’s happened and understand that it’s okay to fail. Reflecting on the past allows you to separate the good from the bad, now it’s up to you to decide what to do with this information. You can either dwell on the negative and feel bad or you can absorb the positive and be happy for what you DO have, feed off that energy to help you create more positive moments in your life.

Come the new year, goals will be the first things you write down so don’t forget to make them SMART ones! You remember what those are right? Of course you do. But just to recap, a SMART goal is one that is much easier to achieve because it is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. That’s not to say if your goal isn’t SMART you won’t achieve it, it will be much harder. Even after you’ve made your goal a SMART one, you may be wondering, “what if I fail to follow through with one of my goals?” If you are already doubting yourself, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. There will already be plenty of things working against you, don’t add yourself on the list of things that hold you back. Learn from where you failed and see how you could improve this time around. And remember, if you learned something valuable even when you didn’t reach your finish line, your hard work wasn’t in vain.  

Start this new year with positivity. You do not know what the new year will bring, so welcome it with a positive attitude. It’s ok to feel uncertain and afraid of uncharted territory, if you live life everyday thinking negatively, you’re only calling upon more negativity into your life. You don’t know how tomorrow will turn out so it’s important to receive the day with open arms, an open mind and the kind of attitude that will bring you positivity. Take one day at a time and view this year as a new beginning, as a chance to do better than yesteryear.  

Don’t worry about how you ended the year, you can’t change what’s happened, you can only learn from it. Stay positive as you look forward to achieving every goal you have set for yourself. Worry about what you are doing NOW to reach your goals. Your “new beginning” starts whenever you make it happen not when the clock hits 12. Don’t stand idly and hope that the new year will bring what you want, you have to be willing to put in the effort to begin the year with a new positive outlook and work to attain your dreams. Make it your task to bring good, positive things to yourself.

Learn from the past, live in the present, hope for the future.