Illumined Life Leadership

I love New Year’s! I love the excitement of the unknown, and the power of being able to start anew. We all need fresh starts, and doing so in the New Year is a very natural process.

But how do we create these fresh starts with all the stress they bring, like unreasonable goals and deadlines? Just what are we hoping to accomplish and why? Let me give you a tip. The power is in the WHY! We’ll come back to this in a bit.

The week before the holidays our office went out for lunch and one of my colleagues had a revelation, she asked, “What if we could turn our To-Do’s into Ta-Da’s?” I thought that was brilliant! You see, the wonderful thing about the New Year and the resolutions we create, are the inspiration or meaning behind them. Hopefully, we’re not resolving to do something that holds very little energy or vision for us. Or even worst, resolving to do something because “we should,” or because “they are doing it too!”

• Why do you want to create a new resolution?
• Why is this resolution important?
• How will you feel when you have accomplished it?
• How will that feeling be different than what you feel today?
• When you imagine your outcome are you catching yourself smiling?
• Do you see a vivid picture in your head that has you tingling?

I sure hope so! If not, I’m guessing there’s not much power or purpose behind your resolution. Your WHY is not holding any charge to it. If you don’t see and feel it, don’t resolve to do it, because it signifies that you’ve just created a To-Do instead of a Ta-Da! Even the words To-Do and Ta-Da carry different energies. When you say these simple words can you feel the difference in your voice and in your spirit? I certainly can.

I want you now to look back just a few months and recall your daily, monthly, or quarterly To-Do’s and ask yourself the questions I posed above (replace resolution with To-Do). Be honest with yourself. Are you creating To-Do’s with purpose and passion, or just to keep you busy? We often feel overwhelmed because we are loading up all of our moments with so many To-Do’s and even fewer Ta-Da’s. I’m hoping for you and for me that we can become skillful in reversing this equation.

Yes, we will always have things to do—this is the world we live in, but I challenge you to become more conscious of what you are doing with YOUR time and consciously choose to understand the WHY behind each of them and create more of those Ta-Da’s, which truly create those feelings and outcomes that will light up your days and your entire year. Go Light It Up!

Imagine this now: You’re on stage, lights brightly shining on you, you’re excited, smiling from ear to ear, your arms are outstretched reaching up toward the sky, you’ve just visualized the accomplishment of your resolution, and you’re screaming loudly, TA-DA!!!

Go get that feeling!
Happy New Year!

Namaste,

Monique

PS. Thanks to my colleague and friend, Cristina R. for the inspiration behind this blog!