It's A New Year... What Difference Does That Make?

It's a new year! I must admit, I'm a bit like a kid at Christmas about New Year's. It's like I've just been given 365 brand new days, brand new pages of a blank book to do with as I choose. I can cut and paste from last year's pages, or I can draw out a whole new landscape for myself. It's exciting!

Now of course I'm aware that it's just another day, another flip of the page on the calendar. There's no magical wand that makes this year so much more wonderful than the last! Or is there? Since we set the tone for our days, since we "create" our future if only inasmuch as we choose which path to take, we do hold a magical wand to make our year better that the last.

Not happy with your job? Start looking for what you could do differently either at work or in a brand new direction. Not happy with where you're living? Again, the choice is the same. Change your attitude, or change your action or location. Relationship? Ditto. Health? Ditto.

Whatever it is that you're perhaps feeling some dissatisfaction about, first check your attitude, your thoughts, your beliefs. If those don't need rectifying or raising to a higher perspective, then see what needs to change in your exterior world.

We do have a magic wand, and it is made up of our imagination, our vision, and our choices. A new year can give us the impetus to make new choices. It's as if we get to start over. We don't need to stick to drawing within the lines of our past, or within the template of someone else's vision for us. It's your new year, your dream, your vision, and your heart that yearns for something different.

And while we do have a new slate each day not just on the first of the year, somehow the new year lends itself to fresh beginnings as reflected in New Year's resolutions. Yet perhaps rather than resolutions which sometimes feel like "I should do this", "I shouldn't do that", perhaps we can resolve to simply listen to our heart and follow its promptings. This could be our single resolution for this year. To be true to our Self, to our Dream, to our Vision of a better future for ourselves (which then reflects on and affects everyone around us).

So here's to a "heart-full" year for all of us. May we listen to our inner guidance, may we follow the directives of our loving heart, may we indeed strive to create heaven on earth. And just as the butterfly that emerges with great difficulty from a cocoon, may we realize that our "struggles" are actually helping us to free ourselves from the limitations of our past and our present.

Wishing you an inspired year!

Related Book

On the Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine
by Cara Bradley.

On the Verge: Wake Up, Show Up, and Shine by Cara Bradley.Cara Bradley, a mental strength coach to CEOs and elite athletes, offers powerful body-mind practices to help you shift beyond "crazy busy" into high definition, high voltage living.

Click here for more info and/or to order this book.

About The Author

Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal growth, and well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of joy and creativity.

Creative Commons 3.0: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Attribute the author: Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com. Link back to the article: This article originally appeared on InnerSelf.com

Click here to find Inspirational Calendars