Make Your New Year's Resolutions Work In 2009

We are at the end of yet another year, which has been particularly challenging for many of us. As usual we have learned many ways of how not to do things and naturally intend to do better next year. As we know, when we do the things we have always done we will get what we always got. Simple, isn't it?

So, let's start the New Year by doing things differently.

Learn about universal laws
Get in touch with the authentic you
Clear your stuff and learn to live in the now
Create a healthy working and living environment
Learn about the 80/20 rule
Overcome learned helplessness
Build self esteem
Learn to solve problems creatively

All the above adds up to taking control of your life, being happier and more successful.Oh, oh, you have heard it all before. I know..., so why should this one be different?

Here is the answer in a nutshell: when setting New Year solutions most of us put the cart in front of the horse.

This looks a little bit like this: You intend to lose weight, work less, become healthier, do more exercises, have a better relationship, better career, spend more time with your family and so on.

As you can see the first table for doing things differently is more general and contains nothing as specific as the one above. For good reason. When you decide to improve your career by looking for a new job, improving your marriage listening more to your spouse, or work on losing weight, you are addressing the symptoms and not the root course of your relationship issues, career problems, health conce
s ,or whatever it may be.

I repeat: the problems, delays and other frustrations, irritations, fears etc you are experiencing in your life are the result and not the cause of your issues. Because the issues you face derive from a misconception of your reality, a lack of understanding of how universal laws function, and unresolved early life trauma which is to a large extend the consequence of your unwitting ignorance.

The results you are getting are produced by your conditioning from well meaning parents and other authority figures. Your conditioning has helped shape your views of the world and enabled you to basically function as a human being.

Alas, the nature of existence is constant evolution and movement and this means the you and I are evolving in every moment of our existence. It also means that things have a habit of not working any more after a while, because we are beginning to outgrow them as part of the ever ongoing evolutionary process of life and the universe.

However, since we are trained to fear the unknown of change and have learned to evaluate our lives in terms of what feels safe and familiar to us, we are not only missing out on many opportunities to move on beyond our comfort zones and grow, we are also going against the fundamental universal laws of our existence.

Of course, all of this happens in all innocence, and there is no right or wrong here, nor any blame. Everyone will always do their best at their present level of development.

When we have issues in our life and in society in general this is simply a final wake up call that says "Come on wake up, and move forward, deal with your stuff in new and better ways"

In order to move forward we need to first of all expand our mental horizons, or in other words, increase our cognitive awareness. The more you can see of yourself and understand yourself the easier it will be for you to notice patterns that may impede your progress. These patterns are thought patterns and behaviour patterns.

Vigilance is a keyword here. Instead of chasing the end results outside of you, go inside and start hunting down those little and bigger habits you have, many of them probably for a life time, which keep you stuck and stop you from moving forward. Learn to become mentally nimble. There are many techniques to help you develop mental flexibility and openness.

The suggestions at the beginning of this article are prompts that will help you where to look for personal improvement and self empowerment. When you start working through these points, you will also automatically address more specific issues and conce
s in your life, without getting hung up on minutia. If you see only the smaller part of the picture you may not grasp the patterns that are holding you in your comfort zone.

Build your foundations on solid ground. Just laying one brick won't do the trick, the house will not get built, meaning change, profound live change cannot take place. You will be forever figuring out how to build the entire house on that one brick.

On the other hand, if your foundation is solid improvements will follow. What is more, if everyone works on their bit the effect compounds and spreads into the world in general, raising the collective consciousness.