End This Year On A High

Are you looking forward to the New Year or are you bogged down with unfinished tasks from this year? No matter what sort of year you have had, you still have the opportunity to end this year on a high, and start the New Year on a positive note.

You will have had a number of successes in the last twelve months and it is important to acknowledge them. At the same time, you can learn from those things that did not quite go the way you had hoped.

Here are some simple ways of ending this year powerfully.

1. Review the year that is about to end. Write down some of the highlights of all the good things that happened to you. You will be surprised just how much goodness and happiness you have actually had this year. Write down all your achievements such as “I did more exercise”, “I gave up junk food” or “I wrote a book”.

2. Share and celebrate your successes this year with your family and friends. This self acknowledgement and appreciation will be a great platform for the New Year. You deserve it. As usual, being grateful for the goodness already in your life makes it possible for you to receive even more. Celebrating your successes is also a key step in having the confidence to take on new challenges in the New Year.

3. Send greetings of appreciation and thanks to those people who have helped make this year special for you. Use the normal Xmas paper cards, or better still, be economical and environmentally friendly and use email or internet ecards. Express gratitude for your past alliances and at the same time, forge stronger friendships for the future.

4. Review your current to do list for work. Be ruthless and eliminate as many tasks as you can, without doing them. Then choose just one task and get it done before the end of the year. Finally, throw away your unfinished to do list and do not write another one till next year. You will be surprised how great it will feel not having a list of things to do.

5. Finish off any unresolved matters. Look at completing any small unfinished and niggling tasks around the house, such as oiling any squeaky door hinges, and make sure that these things do not play on your mind early in the New Year

6. Clear up some clutter. Go around the house room by room, collect those things you no longer want and either dump or give to a charity shop. Have a clear space so that the New Year can begin to bring you greater prosperity. Be ruthless and do not wait till spring time to clear your unwanted stuff.

7. Go through your important paperwork and bring up to date as much as possible. You do not want to start the New Year worrying about mundane administration tasks. If you use a computer, then delete any old and unnecessary files and emails.

8. Review how you have spent your time this year, and identify those things that have been draining your energy. Make a plan to eliminate those relationships that no longer work for you. Look at smarter ways of spending your time.
Begin to say NO this year to things that you don’t really want to do. Unsubscribe from newsletters, magazine, email groups so that your time is not cluttered up in the New Year.

9. Be different and do something new. Before the end of the year, do something that you have never done before. For example, go and see a children’s pantomime on your own, take a city tour guide or dine in a restaurant you would have never thought of trying. End the year on a new voyage of discovery and child like curiosity.

10. Start walking every day for at least 20 minutes until the New Year begins. Not only will you feel great but you will be avoiding the weight gain problems so common during the holiday season. Also, you might just enjoy the walking so much that it could become a great new habit for the New Year.
11. Rest and relax. Though you will get busy with some of the above suggestions, it is also important to take it easy now for a day or two and do nothing. Sleep in all day, or just laze about in front of the TV. Recharge yourself before the New Year kicks in.

No matter how the year ends for you, just remember that it has been a great year. And next year you can make it even better.

© Arvind Devalia 2007