Resolutions fizzled out and it’s only a few weeks into the new year? You may need to look at last year’s ‘shorts’ to find this year’s wisdom.

Every year at the end of December, I complete the Christine Arylo Power Pause and Reflection Ritual. It’s a system to look back on the current year to review your wisdom, surprises, successes and ‘shorts’ – something that you didn’t quite finish or things that were not so great about the year. So tempting to call them ‘failures’, right?

The most surprising things were not the surprises or the successes or the wisdom that I had gained over the year, but the lessons around the ‘shorts’. Through the process, you go through an exercise to release the stuff that didn’t go so well and choose to take the lessons, rather than the baggage, into the new year.

So many things last year threw me off course from the goals that I set at the beginning of the year. Life happens. But I was beating myself up over the fact that I hadn’t dropped the kilos or written the book (again!).

Until I did this exercise, I didn’t realise that there were a lot of other factors that went into why I didn’t pound the pavement or get in front of the keyboard – family illness, the loss of a friend, poor physical health – but those moments were important too. They may have thrown me off the perfect resolution path that I set for myself at the beginning of the year, but they shaped who I am and I have become a better person because of it.

“Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – JK Rowling

• What were the lessons you learned last year?
• What do you want to take into the new year?
• What do you want to leave behind?

Don’t be hard on yourself for what you did not achieve last year. Reflect, let it go and treat yourself with compassion, forgiveness and love.

Christine also recommends that you don’t start planning your new year on January 1st, that you spend this first month reflecting, dreaming and planning. I really love this idea – and it means I have until the end of the month to figure out what I want I want to achieve this year. I’m planning to kick off my goals on January 25th to coincide with the new moon in Aquarius.

Have a beautiful start to the year my friends.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.