Celebrate and Start Fresh!

This is the time of year when we celebrate all we have accomplished the last 11 months and re-evaluate what is working or not working in our lives so we can start fresh in the new year.  For some of us, that renewal only lasts until February, but for a lot of us this time is a great launching pad for lasting change.  The key is to make our ‘resolutions’, create a plan to execute them and then make conscious decisions on a daily basis to follow-through.  Too often we get caught up in our pasts and our futures and lose sight of the here and now.  Don’t beat yourself up about what you have or haven’t done in the past, it’s over, there’s nothing you can do about it.  Don’t worry so much about the future and the weight of your goals, it will only overwhelm you.  All you really have is right now – this moment, and in any given moment you can decide to take action that will support your goals or derail them.  Sometimes, you will derail them.  That’s okay.  The beauty of focusing on the moment is you are always free to choose again.

This is the underlying idea when you are trying to practice more mindful or conscious living.  I recently read a beautiful example of this in the November 29th edition of Sports Illustrated.  It was an article about a college athlete named Jill Costello who was a coxswain on the women’s crew team at Cal.  After her junior season, Jill found out she was in the late stages of cancer and it turns out the next year of her college career was her best.  The story moved me to tears (which is hard to do).  Jill was the epitome of determination, perserverance and courage.  Most of us at one point have tried to answer the rhetorical question, ‘what would you do if you only had a year to live’?  Well, Jill had that question literally posed to her when doctors told her she only a had month to live.  Her answer was nothing short of amazing and inspiring.  She wrote a journal entry that read:  Your life is happening right now and this is the only moment you can control.  This is the only minute that really matters.  If you are constantly dwelling on something that happened in the past or feeling anxious about the future, you are missing out on YOUR LIFE.  Do what makes you happy in this moment and your life will be full.  For her that meant rejoining the crew team and helping her team to a second place finish in the national championships despite the pain and exhaustion from her cancer treatment.  And, she did it all without a single complaint.

Truly inspiring.

I know a lot of people who dwell on the past and I know I spend a lot of time worrying about the future.  I will take a lesson from Jill Costello and concentrate more on the here and now.  I will keep dreaming big and laying out my goals but won’t get so caught up in the emotional roller coaster of life that deals us the occasional setback or disappointment.  I will keep my eye on the prize and try to have fun doing it.

So celebrate this holiday and season, count your blessings and try to look at things with a new perspective so when the new year comes, you can start fresh and aim for new heights reaching your goals one step at a time, minute by minute.

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