Most of us celebrate New Year based on a collective calendar that we share. In the US, the new year is celebrated on January 1. In China, it’s celebrated according to the lunar calendar, so the date ranges between January 21 and February 20. As for myself, over the last several years, I’ve gotten in the habit of celebrating New Year’s on a different day – my birthday (January). This habit was indirectly introduced to me through a previous teacher. 

You Are The Focus

He taught me that every year during our birthday, there’s a part of us (the wiser part) that throws all we’ve learned up in the air and determines what to do with it going forward for the next year. What are the attractions, lessons, opportunities, and potential rewards for this coming year? Imagine how this can help you discover more of who you are and what you’re here to do.

If you use the continuation of learning, New Year Resolutions gain depth and increase opportunity. A stark contrast from the typical start-and-stop trend so many people take. With this approach, the focus is not on others’ expectations of you, your image, or your appearance (especially as perceived by others). The focus comes from inside of you. 

Application Is Actuation

When a teacher shares something valuable with you, the only way to learn from it and integrate the learning is to apply it. Otherwise, it’s just an idea. 

It took me years to touch the surface of the depth of what he shared with me, because there are multiple movements within every teaching and learning. The first time you apply a concept, idea, or wisdom you are discovering the possibility of attraction. There is the potential for great insight and breakthrough here. It’s a chance to get a glimpse at the opportunity residing within. It’s not the full picture or learning. If you can discover something, no matter how small, that is appealing to you, beckoning you as it were, then you can allow yourself to be pulled forward into doing it again. 

If you allow this movement, then the next phase will bring balance in coming back to Earth. We realize that what we thought we had learned was only one piece of the picture, which we have not yet completed. Many people mistake this phase as failure or brokenness, however, it’s a necessary part of the journey if you want to build wisdom and knowledge that withstand the test of time. 

The Biggest Challenge

The second phase is the difference between getting the learning to work long-term rather than being a short-term pie-in-the-sky fantasy that dies with fading willpower. 

So when you come to this point, consider yourself fortunate. Challenges are opportunities. Use the opportunity to take you deeper into who you really are and what you hope to create or learn. Keep going through the inner journey. This is the time to re-evaluate (look at what you have gathered), refine the material, and then keep moving forward, although you may need to adapt your method so you get the piece that works. 

These are just the first two steps, but they are critical for growth. Unfortunately, this is where I see people give up most often because coming back to Earth can be perceived as uncomfortable, discomforting, or even painful. But it’s only in moving beyond the discomfort that we get out of it and experience all the wonderful feelings life has to offer on the other side. 

What Excites You & Why

So what opportunities do you want to explore this year? What’s the theme that’s coming from inside of you? My theme this year is about deepening my understanding of how my thoughts create my reality because I love the discovery of self – being more than what I think I am. Notice how it’s:

• self-focused (which I have control over)
• phrased positively
• takes me deeper into who I am and where I want to go

Build On Your Learning

Using New Year resolutions in this kind of way, you can build on each theme from year to year, to year, to year, and keep that meter moving in your favor. Even if the focus or details of the theme appear to change. It’s much more productive than the start-and-stop yo-yo effect. 

The catch is that you’ve got to move beyond the two, and then you will begin to discover who you really are and what you’re here to do.