By Jay Anton

Just before the New Year, I paid a visit to my Uncle Rob. I’ve kind of created a personal tradition of checking in via video or message in regular intervals and especially on special occasions.

To put it mildly, 2018 was a roller coaster of highs and lows, personal and business. The arrival of my daughter changed the way I’d go about things for the years ahead. The Death of my Grandmother and Terminal Prognosis of my father threw me into a cycle of reflection and regrets and what felt like a situation beyond control. A business partner let me down which cost time and money and I worked more hours with less energy left than ever before. Challenging consulting environments made for an extremely disproportionate work:life balance and I flew around the world around 5 times, across the country at least 20.  Despite this though there were many successes which have set the foundations for the year ahead and taking stock of the year behind has lead me to some learnings and goals for the year ahead. I had to learn to accept events that had occur, and truly adopt an approach of accepting, taking accountability, reflecting, reacting and revolutionising.

I know everyone takes these kind of sensitive issues differently. Some would probably be ashamed or hide behind circumstances and allow pride to take over their life by choosing to be blind rather than owning up to their faults and shortcomings. Others allow situations to pen them in to a situation that they deem outside of their control.

In my opinion, if you truly want to improve yourself for the better, you should be humble enough to admit your mistakes and be ready to take responsibility of your actions.

Here are other ways to set yourself up to move mountains this New Year and begin the next exciting chapter of your life.

Cultivate Self-Worth

Living in a state of ‘self-love’ is more than just new-age mumbo-jumbo. It can enhance the quality of your life significantly by making you feel confident about your ability to survive the rockiest of times, to pursue what makes you happy and to create healthy boundaries to protect yourself from people who could potentially harm you. Not to mention give you the self appreciation to truly push forwards in your professional or business life.

So, work on loving and getting to know yourself more. When you don’t know yourself, life becomes a very lonely experience because you’re hanging out with a stranger all the time. Also, learn to fill the empty voids in your life by yourself, so that no matter what unpredictable crap you go through, you will always feel confident that you can work through it because you are with yourself.

Through my years as an apprentice, this element of self value is what is hard-acquired and is never taught as being as critical as it is. A key part of why we hold ourselves back from taking on bigger roles, promotions, opportunities and why we get hit hard by adverse events in our lives is often the fact that simply we justify and empower the things that happen to us (or don’t happen for us) as a result of not being worthy.

The fact is that we are all of equal worth and therefor things happen not because of our perceived value, but as a result of the way we attract situations in our lives and respond to them. Key at the cor of this is acceptance that sometimes things happen – and you don’t need to waste time justifying or understanding why.

Pursue Attainable Objectives

You will be setting yourself up for disappointment if you have unrealistic goals and expectations for yourself – or indeed none at all. Come up with objectives that are measurable, relevant and time-bound.

In the piece “4 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs to Do the First Week of the New Year,” writer Lyneir Richardson explains the importance of creating specific plans to start the year off with a burst of energy.

Begin by re-calibrating your skills, efforts, and resources. Tidy up your work space, filter out the toxic people and habits around you and purge those who are harmful to your productivity. Doing so allows you to generate exciting ideas and new opportunities for growth. It lets you start with a blank canvas

Start afresh. Now that you have your clean environment, reflect on the year that passed.

I like to ask myself 5 x 5 questions:

1) What time did you waste?

2)What went well?

3)What went badly?

4)What unexpected situations arose?

5)How did you respond?

These five questions should shape any thoughts that you put together for the year ahead which should define:

a) What do you want to achieve?
b) When do you want to achieve it?
c) Why do you want to achieve it?
d) How do you want to achieve it?
d) How will you know when you have achieved it?

Challenge Yourself

Pushing yourself to the limits is the only way to know how far you can possibly go. You need to set the bar higher every day in order make REAL progress and big improvements.

And to help you reach further than you were used to and build a better body, check this out – “This Exercise Will Make Your Whole Body More Powerful.”

Just like growing a bigger, stronger body, it’s important to stretch the mind for growth rather than limiting its exposure. Raise yourself to new challenges and situations and systematical work through them.

As Richard Brandson says; if somebody offers you an amazing opportunity that you don’t know how to do – say yes and figure out how to do it later.

Embrace the Changes in Your Life

Change is the only thing constant in this world. You can’t prevent it from happening so it doesn’t make sense resisting it.

According to writer Andrew Meyer, spiritual evolution cannot be contained because it is in your very nature to transform and grow in body, mind and spirit. Also, you do not have to conform or be a slave of the system, especially if it doesn’t secure your freedom and your natural, inherent and inborn rights as a human being.

The “awakening” process can be a bit shaky, out of balance and draining, but there’s no need to worry because it’s a normal part of soul growth. The best thing you can do while you’re going through this process is to remain positive by choosing to treat the whole experience as a stepping stone to reach your fullest potential.

Here are some important things to remember to be able to adapt to the shifts, transcend the bumps of your transformation process and remain in control.

• Think positive thoughts. Be calm in your heart and use your breath to find peace.
• Believe in your power to create and to drive your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Do not be afraid to take a leap of faith out of your comfort zone so that you can discover your true self and claim your limitless potential. Always remember that you are ultimately always in control.
• Reconnect with yourself through nature to help elevate your consciousness.
• Understand that if you want to reclaim control and resonate with freedom, you also have to take responsibility for your whole being – from your food, body, emotions, thoughts and decisions.
• Let go of any beliefs or practices that do not resonate with positivity. Create your best intentions for what serves your ambitions, but do it with caring and appreciation.

 

Make 2019 a year that you control rather than just witness.