At the dawning of a New Year, it has become customary for many people to either set New Year’s resolutions, to work towards them only to abandon them, or to take them seriously and continue to act on them. Some people use this as a time to process and review where their lives are at.  In either case, resolution or reflection can be rewarding, annoying, frustrating, guilt inducing, habitual or a sincere evaluation of the process of personal growth.  Whatever the end result of this process, many engage in this activity because that is what is expected owing to the time of the year.

Increasingly, time as we know it is becoming a misnomer – we have been conditioned to think of time in boxes, categories, themes, months, years. In our rigid need to be in control we see time as finite and consisting of frozen moments – snapshots of time.  What if we were to look at time differently – where we view time as a process which is not subject to strict timelines and deadlines – in other words, 2006 is not seen as an ending and 2007 not a beginning. What if we saw this as a process of one year spiraling and growing into another?

What ever our frame of mind is regarding New Year’s resolutions or personal growth reflections, some consideration should be given to what we want to work through and why. To gain the most from a process such as this, greater good and progress is achieved if we are able to link this review to our Higher Purpose or our Higher Selves – that still small voice that often reminds of when we are and are not true to ourselves. In so doing, we gain access to and perspective in living life more authentically.

A meaningful life review can be processed by reflecting in the rear view mirror of our life story to discover the lessons to be found in our experiences.  The purpose of this is to learn and not to get stuck in a rut or to bemoan all that has gone before. Exploring the following questions can often highlight exciting, interesting, sometimes painful parts of ourselves:

• What are those things that we wish to close down as they no longer serve us or our Higher Purpose;
• What parts of ourselves do we wish to honor as lessons having been learned and new learnings about ourselves that we wish to reinforce and bed down;
• What are those lessons and aspects of our being that have worked for us and that we wish to continue with and
• What new lessons do we need to prepare for?

Self reflection of this nature allows us to take stock of where we have landed up – it allows us to correct our course and redirect our energy and efforts. It requires that we assume a position that is dispassionate and objective, that we see ourselves through wise and tolerant eyes.

All we do in the now prepares us for the foundation that we lay for what is to come. The building of our future is based in and built on 1000’s and 1000’s of choices that we make in the presence of the now. In working through a life review, it is our ability to understand the information about ourselves that we are being presented with, the responses we choose related to possible consequences that contributes to our vision of our future.

Modern day living seems to increasingly demand perfection of the Human Spirit – were we perfect what more lessons would there be for us to learn? In analyzing where we are, human nature would have us judge, measure, compare and more often than not we find ourselves wanting. We are most often our worst critics. In undertaking such a life review courage and humility is required. Courage relates to our acceptance of both our light and shadow, of what is working for us and what is not; of taking responsibility for ourselves and of being able to respond.  Humility comes into play where we are able to suspend judging ourselves, and thus we gain access to wisdom – the wisdom to be found in being flexible, being in flow with who we are, and in creating a future filled and alive with possibility.

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