Dallas International: Hello 2011; I shall know you as…

New Years Eve really snuck up on me this year. Living the gypsy life its hard to maintain rituals. The first years that New Years held any value for me I spent camping; surrounded by good friends, nature, music and making magical memories. It organically became a time of recalibration, release and joy. But for the second consecutive year I am in living in the Canadian snow which doesn’t easily lend its self to a beach side road trip with little more than a tent, a play list, rations and besties.

I’m not into the implied failure of new years resolutions.

I leant a few years ago how well I work with a process and framework so this is my little ritual that lets me ground, focus and shoot forth into a productive year…

I think about who I want to be in a year’s time. What I want to have achieved, what I want my life to look like or not look like. “Some times its more important to know what you don’t want” – awesome wisdom from my mum

Then I think about how I need to grow to become that person. What needs to develop from knowledge to finance to feelings and more?

And then how to measure that I am growing and stying on track with it. This is where I need to get creative.

Like 2009 the year of humanity; how do I measure that I am working out-just like a muscle and there for growing my gratitude? My solution: watch one sunrise a month- not too hard as there are 30 of them but when was the last time you can say you sat quietly and soaked in the glory of a sunset, took that time for yourself 12 times a year? It was a challenge and required discipline as I am always time poor but the rewards were rich and instantly fulfilling. And anytime I need a little more gratitude in my life I make time to soak in the sunset and lock back into that. the skill building is not constrained to that year- that year is simply the lab to road test what works for me and what doesn’t on the topic.

After I have a general theme I consolidate it all down to a single focal point. I sometimes have goals that are outside this but it is from this focal point that the name of my year comes.

I started with ‘ The Year of Understanding’. For instance when someone cut me off in traffic and turned off a few streets later I took a moment to understand that they were in a rush just like me and to them pushing in for just a few blocks was ok because they knew they would be out of my way again soon. And understanding that made it ok; subsequently curing my road rage. This may not have been the whole picture but that was secondary to me growing my understanding- in this instance compassion. The more I understood the easier it was when I didn’t understand; because I understood that there was probably what seemed like a good reason even if I couldn’t see or imagine it.

The bottom line and most important factor in all of my decision making for the year is if it supports the focus of my year. The point of all this is choosing things that I need to build skills in and my favourite example of this challenge comes from the year of Happiness.

Named because I had just ended a terrible relationship with my ex and with my work place that had been causing every aspect of my life and my self to crumble. I realised that I had lost the ability to make myself happy and I didn’t want to live like that any more. I knew that it wasn’t just a matter of being happy or not; I needed to build skills in decision-making, release and self-preservation that promoted my happiness.

So heres the story…I hate being late and always beat myself up for it. One morning I woke up and knew that I wasn’t happy at all and had a full day at work- a place only adding to the unhappiness (and with perspective a gym for me to build my strength to make myself happy). The thing is if you don’t make the decisions that are aligned with your goal but are hard to make you don’t grow.

That morning there was only one thing to do. I gave myself permission (because guilt would undermine anything I was trying to achieve) and I lay in bed studding everything on my grateful board (I’ll tell you about it later J) and every reason why I was so grateful for that until I felt happy. It took me two and a half hours- effectively I missed the first half of my workday. But the meeting survived without me, the work got done (even thought I thought it was the end f the world if I want there) I built invaluable skills not only in happiness- it was a break though day for me- but also in my understanding of what it sometimes takes and the rewards there are reaped. I am still reaping the rewards form what I did in that 2.5 hours and think I forever will.

So that’s the how, why and result of me naming my year;

I am still working on what I will make of 2011 but I’ll let you know when I have got it… J