Want to Have a Head Start on Your New Year’s Resolution?

Each year, around this time, we make a New Year’s resolution. We re-sign up for the gym. We recommit to improving a relationship.

We’re so hopeful that this time around, it’s going to stick. It’s that wonderful New Year’s bug.

If the only thing that has changed from the year before is our sincerity and earnest, we may want to get additional support to actually have a chance of making a difference this year.

You see, when you make a New Year’s resolution, you bring your whole self to this new vision, this new commitment. You bring your habits, your tendencies, your doubts, your emotions, as well as your discipline (or lack thereof). It’s like if I told you that I wanted my old Chevy to have better gas mileage without changing anything.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” you’d say.

What if, however, I told you that I’d deep cleaned the whole combustion system, cleared out all the filters, and changed all the sparks? Then, that would make sense to you; I installed a transmission system, and now, you’ll believe me.

On Jan 4, 2018, I went to a fire burning ceremony at the local Unity Church. It’s a yearly ritual at the beginning the year to release everything unwanted from the year before, so we have a clean house for the New Year.

Here’s what you can do to clear out your internal filters and pipes:

1. Mark on your calendar 30 minutes of uninterrupted time. You can get your spouse or a friend to do it with you.
2. Grab a pen and a piece of paper for each person.
3. Set a timer for 10 minutes. When the timer’s up, you can extend it for a couple more minutes if that feels right to you.
4. Write down what you want to release:
   • People: your boss or your ex-boyfriend
   • Places: the old house that you moved out of
   • Events: Liz’s birthday party
   • Institutions: the government, the church, or the company
   • Guilt: for lying about what happened
   • Resentments: that you didn’t get the promotion
   • Regrets: that you didn’t ask for what you wanted
   • Blame: your mom for being so controlling
   • Disappointments: wishing you could’ve gone to Italy on vacation
5. Bless the items on your list and lovingly release them. They were a part of your year, regardless of how displeased or disgusted they made you feel. Ask God, the Divine, or the Universe to take them and make light from them.
6. Bonus: Burn the piece of paper.

What’s your New Year’s resolution?  Share with me below.

Best wishes for 2018!