And One Reason That You Will Be More Successful Than Ever.

Welcome to 2019.

We’re now two days into the new year. If you are like most Americans, you probably took yesterday, New Year’s Day, as a “cheat day,” recovering from the late-night celebrations of the prior evening.

It’sall good. You weren’t alone…no judgement here.

Your new year starts here, today. That means you have 363 days left to achieve your goals.

Clock’s ticking… (feeling the pressure yet? I hope so.)

As you become aware that a deadline exists if you are going to win this year, think about how you felt one year ago.  Did you think that 363 days was all the time in the world? Did you believe that you didn’t have to start today…you…could…just…put…it…off…until…tomorrow…or…next…week…?

An old boss, and friend, of mine used to say, “Work will expand to fill the time allocated to it.”

And he was right. If you give yourself all year to achieve a goal that should probably take just a few months, you’ll wait until September or October to really get going, just so you can make it by your deadline.

What would happen to your life if you started sooner (like today) and set tighter deadlines for yourself? What more could you achieve if you stopped wasting time and started taking action?

Ready now? Good. Let’s get going.

Mindfulness is Step One.

Before you start running off toward your goal, it’s important that you know exactly, EXACLTY, where you are at this moment.

Take a good look at your life. What’s going well, what could use some adjustment?

Become aware of your current circumstances.

From this place of awareness, you can begin to plot your course forward toward your goals. Without a good starting reference for the present, you’ll be wasting effort to get where you are intending to go. Kinda like a bad GPS signal.

Becoming aware, mindfully aware, of your present circumstances is critical to creating a space of acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and openness toward new success.

Yet, why do we sometimes get stuck in the awareness of the past, rather than moving forward to create our new futures?

Three Reasons You Will Not Be Successful in 2019:

1) You aren’t truly thankful (yet)

From a place of awareness of your current situation, how do you feel? What are you focused on?

It’s natural to be focused on what you perceive as wrong with your life. Afterall, we humans have a negativity bias.

Be careful not to get stuck in this way of thinking. It will hold you back from making progress this year.

Focusing on the shortfalls only increases your perception of the pain associated with these perceived failures.

Inside every perceived failure is a lesson. (That’s why I call them “perceived failures.” What are you focusing on in these instances? You didn’t learn to walk without falling over a lot…stop expecting anything else in your life to go perfectly on the first try.)

Shift your focus from the perception of lack toward how you would take action differently this year so that you can win.

Be thankful for these lessons that are helping to guide you forward. Take a good look around you and start noticing all of the things that are going right in your life.

If you need help with this, get a copy of The Five-Minute Journal.

2) You haven’t forgiven yourself (yet)

For you to move forward, you have to let go of the baggage of the past.

Yes. It’s over. You can’t change it. Move on.

If you believe that you did something wrong, or that someone/some situation wronged you, what will it take for you to forgive them or yourself?

If you are looking back from your present awareness and saying, “If only I’d known better…” STOP IT NOW!

You didn’t know any better when you made that decision in the past. You did the best you could with the information that you had at the time.

Stop beating yourself up, forgive yourself or others and get moving forward.

If you are having a difficult time forgiving someone else, consider these two points:

A) forgiveness isn’t for them, it’s for you.

B) Until you forgive and release them, your stuck with them…wasting energy on something you can’t change. Do you really want to be stuck for the rest of your life with a potentially toxic person in your life?

I didn’t think so.

Let ‘em go.

Feels better, doesn’t it?

3) You’re afraid to change

Fear is a powerful motivator. One of the strongest emotions that we have.

And, if you’ve read A Pessimist’s Guide to Manifesting (shameless plug), you know that the strongest emotion always wins…ALWAYS.

It’s understandable to be a little afraid of the unknown.

From the perspective of our comfort zone, we stay stuck…not taking a chance on a new job, new relationship, new opportunity for life, because, well, we’re kinda OK right here.

Our fear kicks in and suggests things like, “What if you fail at the new job and get fired? What will you do then? Better stay here where you have a steady paycheck and benefits. Yeah, the place sucks, but it could be worse.”

And it could be a lot better too.

If you are afraid of making a change, bring you mindfulness forward and ask, “Since I know now that I am afraid of failing, what would I do to ensure that I didn’t fail?”

Maybe even play the “What’s the worse that could happen?” game with yourself.

You’ll probably find that for every objection your fearful-mind presents, your resourceful mind will have an empowering response.

Happiness and excitement are also powerful motivators. Get your thinking aligned with how great life will be when you succeed.

If that feels difficult, you can still use fear to propel you forward. Think about not making the change…What will life be like if you are still in the same place on December 31, 2019 as you are right now?

That doesn’t have to happen. You have 363 days to make sure that it doesn’t.

Turn your thinking around. Believe in yourself.

Choose to make yourself a success this year. You can do it.

Believing in yourself is a choice. It’s your decision.

You can focus on limitations or you can focus on opportunities.

Apply the three steps above as methods to release your past baggage and open yourself to new possibilities.

The only thing in your way is your belief in yourself.

Get to work.

It’s my job to help you succeed. Contact me if you need help with any of the obstacles listed above.