New beginnings: create your best life!
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It is a delight to welcome many who have just started receiving my Big Ideas. I am so pleased to welcome these great women.
This past weekend I celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The focus of this High Holy Day runs deeper than our secular new year.
On Rosh Hashanah we celebrate the creation of the world and welcome a sweet new year. We are also introspective, as this holiday starts a 10-day period during which we reflect on the ways we fell short in the past year. We pray for forgiveness and to be “written into the book of life” for the year ahead.
The idea that we have a new start, one filled with opportunity to be self-aware and to live with clear intention truly inspires me.
We can start anew each day
Holidays of many kinds offer is the opportunity to take note, reflect, celebrate, and some invite us to consider some change we might make.
In fact, every fresh new day is an invitation to be grateful, to bring awareness to how we are living, and to do something new or different.
Rather than living on autopilot, why not set an intention at the start of each day?
You might create a small morning ritual to reflect and consider what new action or way of being you want to make a focus of your day.
Your ritual can include a few minutes to write in a journal. It might include lighting a candle and sitting quietly. It might be taking a walk to reflect on nature. Create what works for you!
Just make one small change today
If you have been a reader here, or have heard me speak, you know that I believe in the power of implementing small changes.
As you embark on a morning practice or ritual, it is key to bear that in mind.
Rather than aiming to make a sweeping change, think of making a very small shift — in thought and/or action.
Need ideas to spark your heart?
On some days you may be very clear about your focus for the day ahead. On others, you may be less clear and feel unsure what focus will support you to have your best day.
And while you may want to stick with one focus for a period of time, you might choose to change your focus as outside circumstances, inner desires, or new possibilities prompt you to make different choices.
Any way you bring awareness and commitment to your day is great.
Consider these possibilities:
• Choose to add curiosity
Bringing more curiosity into your day is always a great idea. Curiosity can be applied in countless ways. Ask more questions in conversations and listen with care. Bring a curious mind to explorations of possibilities and solutions. Be curious about underlying motivations — your own and those of others.
• Choose to cultivate patience
Set an intention to sit with discomfort when things do not happen as quickly as you’d like, or when you have an impulse to plow ahead without full consideration of a matter, or when others are unresponsive.
• Choose to be more loving
Think about how you might love yourself more. Maybe you will be more self-forgiving, or pause to eat a more nutritious meal mid-day. And, how might you love others more fully, though acts of kindness, or helping someone, or even in your thoughts?
• Choose to be more trusting
You can actively trust yourself and the decisions you make. You can be more trusting of others, too. That awareness of trust will automatically prompt you to be more thoughtful as you move through your day.
• Choose to show up a bit more boldly
What one small way can you be more bold today — in a way that feels authentic for you? Try something small, such as asking someone you trust to listen to an idea you’ve had and not yet dared to share. Post about something you believe in or matters to you on LinkedIn, so people get to see an aspect of you they haven’t known about. Even something as small as making a clothing change that shows your real personality can be a good way to start being bolder.
• Choose to celebrate yourself
I suggest you make this idea a part of every day! Acknowledge yourself for creating a daily ritual, for taking thoughtful actions, for each small — and big — thing you contribute to, or initiate, or see through in your day. As my clients and audiences know, I think saying a spirited “YAY ME!” at each of these moments is a powerful practice to make part of your life!
We get to create our lives each day
New beginnings are wonderful — and holidays that highlight the start of a new year, whether religious or secular, are a gift.
Knowing that we can make each and every day a new start, that we can fill each day with awareness, and make commitments to ourselves for how we want to live our biggest best day, fills me with inspiration.
I hope it does you, as well.
Take a moment to imagine your life a year from today, having made clear commitments to Live Big each day.
Savor that vision, and commit to making it your reality.
I am always happy to connect with you, to hear about your deep desires for a life that fulfills you, and help you gain clarity and insight about what is limiting you now, and what is possible. Email me — and we’ll make a date to talk.
