A time for introspection

IT'S A new year and perhaps you're thinking it's time for a new you. This is a great time to start afresh and address the issues you'd like to improve on or just eliminate.

Maybe it’s time to do a little change. Doing the same stuff over and over again can be irksome. It’s time to shake off the doldrums of the previous year and get energized. Do away with mental fatigue. New Year is an opportunity to reboot, reformat, and rethink everything.

We all need changes. Some we find very hard to admit to ourselves. I've heard people who say they have no regrets about their lives. But that attitude is way too blind and self-serving as far as I'm concerned. There is great power in confession. Owning up to our failures is the first step on the road to something better.

When we change calendars, it should be a good time for reassessment. How did last year go? What do I want to do differently this year? The new year is perhaps a time to learn to rely more heavily on the grace of God. If last year, you didn't practice relying on the Lord as much as you should have, there is no time like the present to make a new year's resolution.

You can actually do things like "starting over,” "setting new goals,” and focusing on "new challenges”. New Year can mean a new ball game. It gives us a distinctive feeling of relief that something's over and the promise that something better can potentially happen.

New Year is a good time to recharge your batteries, and refocus on what you want to accomplish during the year as well as reflect on the past and envision a future. Reflect upon what you did, how you felt, what you liked, what you didn’t and what you learned. Try to look at yourself and your experience with as much objectivity as you can—much like a biographer would.

In order to embrace the new, we must release the old. A trapeze artist cannot swing from one bar to another without letting go. An essential part of preparing for the New Year is to review the year that was—to release it—and to learn from it.

Until next week, let's do something remarkable!