The new years is always so exciting, full of hope and possibility - and rightfully so! Go charge towards your goals and resolutions, and practice shifting that 1% every day, and you will find that you are a different person by the end of the year. At the same time, if you do stumble on the way to your goals, don’t worry about it, and don’t beat yourself down. That happens to everyone - bad habits are hard to break. If they were easy to break, no one would have bad habits. So when you do stumble, pick yourself up, and acknowledge what happened. For instance, one of my goals for the year is to wake up at 5 am in the morning for at least 30 days - and it has not been going well. I’m still adjusting, and it’s taking longer to adjust than I thought it would. However, I have been waking up earlier than I normally would in an attempt to get to the 5 am, and I am still able to be productive during that time, so I am not going to beat myself up for not waking up at 5 am. Not any more. Many have mastered the art of beating themselves up, and making themselves feel terrible. All this does is dampen your mood and make you want to quit - so what good does beating yourself up do?

The other thing is perspective. Everything has perspective. How do you see your world? Is it all negative, positive, a combination? Which do you focus on more? Yes there are terrible things in the world that is happening; however, in your day-to-day world, can your perspective be shifted so that your days are full of gratitude and fulfillment? For example seeing everything as an opportunity instead of an obligation can be one way to shift your perspective. When you go to work, saying to yourself that ‘you get the opportunity to go to work’, can start to shift your perspective, and remind you that it is something to be grateful for.

Gratitude is a wonderful way to encourage a shift in your perspective. Writing down 3 things you are grateful for every day - making sure that they are always different - can be a great way to either start or end your day. There are other ways you can practice gratitude, including writing a letter and hand delivering it to them, or thanking someone mentally, prayer, meditation, etc. Find what works for you, and slowly, you may notice that your perspective of the world shifts.

As one of my favourite teachers use to say: “Be kind and gentle with yourself.” You’ve got this.

~ Dr. Charmagne