Blog: Look Back To Clearly See Road Ahead At New Year Year's end is a good time to look back at what you have learned, completed, accomplished and left undone. It is all too simple to walk away from one experience and move quickly into the next. Yet, without introspection, you tend to repeat yourself, often neglecting to learn from your situations. Contemplation helps you put your life in perspective and that lends itself to clearly seeing the road ahead. Take time to consider the following: What did the past year present to you? What were the most significant events and how did you respond to them. How did they shape you? That leads you to the present. What do you want now and what is required, on your part, to move in that direction? Answering these questions not only helps to establish perspective in letting go but also adjusts your thinking and expectations for new experiences. You also achieve better self-understanding and, perhaps, appreciate what you’ve been through and accomplished despite it all. Resolution means to resolve or promise. Resolutions for the New Year can work for you, if you are clear and explicit about why you want them. Keeping tabs on your progress and growth through the years helps you calculate future steps. In time you develop objectivity and clarity of purpose. Your goals or resolutions become promises or commitments to yourself, not the rest of the world. In that way they are motivating and easier to remember and keep sacred. It is kind of like being a Monday morning quarterback. By looking over your shoulder to objectify the past, you know where you've been and that helps you know where you're going. Appreciating your life is fundamental to growth. It is a superb way to let go of the past and get yourself ready for new promises and expectations. Remember to feel gratitude for every event and experience. It doesn’t matter if you performed well or not. Don’t use this time to be critical. Just observe and take note. In the past year many people busied themselves clearing the away the old (job, relationships, lessons, goals, or even the rubbish in their homes – or minds). This prepares you for something new. Wisdom tells us you can’t have a new kind of friendship or relationship if you continue to put up with bad behavior -- abuse, neglect, or negativity. In the same way, you can not move on to having a joyful career, if you hang on to one that is not fulfilling. Change has to take place to pave the way for newness. The good and even the bad times offer gifts and insights. Stop, reflect, and receive those offerings. Putting things in perspective is crucial to having hope for the future. Without hope, there is no motivation, and without motivation, joy and enthusiasm wane. Ensure your forward movement by making your new year's promises thoughtfully. Make these commitments to yourself and no one else. Know your personal reward for each one. (Most of the time the outcome is feeling good.) Then you are ready to begin 2008 with a clear head, a happy heart and joyous expectancy.