It’s the start of a whole new year! It’s a clean slate that awaits your first mark – your intentions, desires, hopes, dreams and goals for the coming year.  It’s a time that is classically reserved for resolving that your life will be different this year – that you will lose the weight, get in shape, improve your relationships, get out of debt and get organized!  Phew…that’s quite a list!  

Does it sound familiar?  Do you find yourself making the same resolutions every year only to discover that you haven’t achieved them yet again by year’s end?  The resolutions I listed are among the top 10 most popular and at their essence, there is nothing wrong with them.  However, from my perspective, there is an implication that you are lacki ng in some way.  Instead of starting your year thinking that you have to “fix” yourself, why not consider that you are already perfect, whole and enough?  Instead of setting goals that require you to maintain a will of steel 24/7, why not engage the energy of joy and inspiration?  

I used to set resolutions with great enthusiasm and hope only to realize that a few months into the year I had strayed from my resolve.  This straying lead to beating myself up for lack of discipline, feeling like a failure and giving up on being able to have the life I wanted.  Whoo hoo…happy new year to me!! Then the day finally came when I realized that all of this beating up, struggling and not being enough was making me miserable.  That’s when I decided that I needed more joy in my life, not more hard work, more will power or more discipline.  

A more joyful way to begin the New Year emerged when I began choosing a theme for the year.  Last year my theme was The Incredible Lightness of Being and I had a year filled with lightness, joy and managed to lift an incredible weight off my shoulders.  I danced more, traveled more, spent more time with friends, make some delightful new friends, lightened my workload, reduced my obligations, lost some weight and improved my health.  Mission Accomplished!

This year my theme is Boldness of Being!  This theme thrills me and scares me at the same time which tells me there is good energy in this theme, energy that will fuel me all year long, not just for the first few months.  

I highly recommend that you try this approach.  Choose a theme for your year – a word or a phrase that makes your blood move, makes you a little bit uncomfortable and most importantly, that makes you giggle like a little child with a yummy secret!  

To make it even yummier, send me an email before January 31 with 2012 Theme in the message line, tell me your theme and I’ll enter your name in a draw for a deck of my Reconnect to Yourself Cards.  

What is your experience with New Year’s resolutions?  Do they work for you?  Does the thought of a theme change anything for you?  Share your thoughts with me on the blog.

Happy New Year!