How to Live a Truly New Year

The new year will be here in less than a month. Instead of writing about the typical resolutions, programs and goals, I’d like to share how I’m preparing for something truly new.

Trying to turn the page when there’s so much left over from past attempts, is more than most of us can do alone. But, this exercise, is one that is exclusive to our singular experience.

It’s a writing exercise that is designed to help us remove old, negative, traumatic or hurtful experiences in an attempt to cut off their influence over our future actions. Again, this is not an easy exercise, but like I wrote above, we can’t very well turn the page to the new without some help to unload the past.

Practically speaking, writing connects our physical body to our mind. We move according to our thoughts and regardless of whether we’re good at it or not, the process of writing is a bridge to a new way of thinking, and therefore behaving.

One of the ideas behind this Pennebaker method, is that what we express is ours alone and we can either erase it, burn it, shred it, or leave it for our own editing in the future. Writing out our frustrations and pain points gets them out of our mind so we perseverate less and can start to think about the new things.

Once we have written about the problem, then what?

Then we get a chance to think more clearly with less mess. We can see with a clearer view of our potential without the cloud of our failures. And isn’t that what the new year is mostly about? Starting new? Getting a fresh look at what’s next? Remember how Scrooge took the lessons from the haunting ghosts and became a new person?

When we spend some time recognizing that our past does not have to parlay into our future, we give ourselves the best shot and getting to a new place.

Many years, we may be hesitant to say what we’d like to happen in the next 12 months for fear of other people knowing our hopes and dreams, and then failing. As you may well know already, speaking and writing about what we want to change about ourselves is one of the best ways to help us make it happen. New clients often tell me, “I’m going to tell you this so you help me accomplish it.” And it can be the same for you.

These processes boil down to the idea that we actually CAN do better. And that idea is rooted in the HOPE that we aren’t stuck and static; that our bodies and minds (and spirits) can improve…we aren’t on a downhill slide with no escape. But, if you’ve not cleared the path from the past, you’re going to go on a road based on what you’ve experienced exclusively, rather than taking a turn to a better journey.

I’d like to invite you to practice this process sometime within the next 4 weeks and allow yourself to dream and hope that next year will be different in a very positive way for you personally. It is possible, no matter the price, that you will look back in 12 months and see a new you from your new year.