What a year it has been. So many people had a difficult year and were ready for 2020 in August already.
The year has certainly brought its share of anger, frustration, sadness, stress and anxiety. Fortunately for us, life runs in “waves”. It cannot always be bad, there are certainly some ups as well. Therefor this year would have brought you some love, happiness, joy and pleasures.
Life is a pendulum. It has to tick-tock on its way from the one side to the next. And so, do our lives. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry. Sometimes we love, sometimes we are angry. Then, when you move out into the larger world, you will experience that same pendulum swing in your neighbourhood, your town or city, move onto your country and so forth. And that is perfectly normal. Life is living and being alive means there is a pulse. For general life, that pulse is the wave of the pendulum swing, tick-tock from the one event to the next.
But, as we all do as we approach the final days of this year, we start reflecting on the year that has been. Depending on the kind of year you experienced in general, you will focus on either “good or bad”. We create these amazing boxes for the events of the past year, and we file them into hard and difficult times and fun and happy times.
What would happen if we shift that approach and we start looking at the year from a place of power and growth?
What happens if I tell you that the pendulum never turns in recess, it always turns on a high? Even on the “negative” side’s high.
There is good in every bad, and there is bad in every good. That is a general law we all live by. When things are good, we conveniently forget the bad and that is why we never learn during good times. We are too busy enjoying and celebrating. You should really celebrate through the hard times, because when the hard times come, we forget to look for the good. And the hard times bring us the lessons so we can enjoy even more good times – or enjoy the good times even more intense. It is for this reason, that the negatives also end on a high – the high of the lesson we received.
As you are looking back on this year, I want you to keep the following in mind and then take note of what you learned, and carry that forward with you into 2020, instead of the memories of the bad events.
What should you take with from 2019?
1. Forget the list: Forget all the things you did not tick off your list for this year. You did not do them, and no amount of stressing and cussing is going to make it happen now. Take a breath and rather start a list of what you have learned this year. How much have you grown this year? Earlier I spoke about the pendulum and that we never learn in the good times, but only in the hard times. What did you learn this year? What changes did it bring within you? Who are you now for the lessons you learned? Our years are so full of blessings, and once you can start being grateful for your hard times and the growth that you gain from them, as much as you have gratitude for your good times, you will have found the love of life. Hard times are not here to punish us, they are hard because we fight the lesson. What lessons did 2019 bring for you?
2. Open the Door: As you have changed over the year and grown into this new person, you would have found that certain things, habits and people just no longer work for you. Relationships might have become strained. You might have found yourself moving more towards a healthier diet and you are struggling letting go of bad habits. As you change, as you grow, your whole life changes. What served you a year, two years ago, can no longer serve you. People come into our lives to teach us something about ourselves. And when that lesson is done, often those people move out of our lives. And that is not true of every relationship we have, but when a relationship starts taking strain, we have to look within and ask ourselves, what has changed? Why is it no longer feeling good? And the same goes for our careers, fitness, health, beliefs, etc. It is your responsibility to let go gracefully, so that more can come in for you to grow more. Show appreciation and gratitude for what was and what it brought to your life, wish it well on its way to playing a role in someone else’s life, and welcome the new into your life.
3. Your Dream: You are no longer the person you were in January. It is time to sit down, look at your dream and where you are going and re-evaluate it. If your Life Dream does not change, then you are not growing. That does not mean everything has to change but, change the parts that no longer is applicable to your life. Do you write your dream down? It is very important for formulate that dream. How will you know what you want to work towards? Anything that is open in the air has no legs that ground it to life, and it will float off, time and again. Give your dream legs and write it down.
4. Gratitude: You cannot go through life and never give gratitude. The base requirement for getting more of what you want in life, is to show and feel gratitude. Do you realise that with all that could happen, you were given the opportunity to experience life in your unique way? You did not learn my lessons. You did not have to enjoy my pleasures. You got to enjoy your lessons and your pleasures to enrich your life and propel you forward towards you dream. Now that is special and amazing. Do you still think you should not give thanks for the year you got to experience?
May this year have brought you as many beautiful blessings as you have wished for. May the growth that you experienced, stand you in good stead and may you fly to unimaginable heights.
Sue Leppan
Transformation Life Coach
NLP Practitioner
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