“A journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step." Lao Tsu. 2016 New Year's resolutions - how can you create your own vision and keeping a balance between planning and "scanning"?

How was your start so far? And what are your goals or plans for this year? Are you a planner (doing person) or a “scanner” (being person)? Do you prefer to just go with the flow and let things happen, trusting good things will come to you, experiencing things you didn’t even know could happen? Or do you prefer to plan everything in minute detail to make sure everything will happen exactly as you wanted, no better no worse, as it would be too risky to leave it all to chance? Or perhaps you are worried that if you don’t plan, things would not turn out the “right” way? Or is it somewhere in between?

The paradox is that often no planning does not mean no goals. Perhaps, like with many things, it's all a matter of balance and a combination of things. For example it is important for many of us to have some sort of an overall vision or goal for what we want to achieve in life, to make us feel more fulfilled and to have a purpose.

This may be planning a family, moving abroad, setting up your own company, change professions or study again. For some of these plans, the larger steps are perhaps important to plan for, as you may otherwise feel that you won’t do it and will continue to be distracted by your daily chores. It is important to visualise your goals and take some steps towards them.

It is however also important to leave room for “creative flow”, where you can let things happen, say more “yes” to spontaneous things, or to not “doing” anything at times, to explore more opportunities that you normally wouldn’t and have some fun in the process. This may involve things that you would usually describe as too risky, like quitting your job or finally getting out of that destructive relationship, without having umpteen exit plans and strategies in place to make sure it can only be a safe and sure thing.

You may often be more aware of what you don’t want, or no longer want, rather than the things you do want. Even if you do have some idea of what you want you may have an inherent belief that for some reason you cannot possibly get there, that you don’t deserve it, were never lucky anyway, are too poor, too old, too unfit, too unskilled - you name it. But the good new is that it is just that - a belief, a perception of yours that you hold on to so strongly because it actually serves a purpose that you may not yet be aware of (unconscious). This is often linked not only to an inherent fear of failure, but also a fear of success!

This is why it can be so helpful to talk things through and explore this with someone impartial to you and your friends or family. Having a good coach, psychotherapist or counsellor to turn to can be the first step in finding out what is really important to you. It can help you identify issues that still need to be resolved and let go off. This can result in making space for you to embrace new things in your life that are aligned to your own unique values, your overall life vision and goals.

For a nice recipe corresponding to this chakra colour see below, enjoy creating something warming and nourishing for yourself! 

If you could use a bit more support to create your new vision, to get you to where you want to be this year, just contact us. Or if you know someone you care about that could use a little extra support this year, please do feel free to forward our details for a free initial chat. We can figure out the next steps after that.

Make it a good start with the next step!