Let’s Shoot For The Heavens In 2011

Happy New Year. I would like to offer some suggestions for making your new year happy and successful.

Author Gail Sheehy once said, “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” Coping with transitions is truly a part of living a full life as we accept change and move toward what is to come.

Periodically step back from your daily routine and look at your life in a larger perspective. Are you really pursuing goals that will make you and those important to you happy?

Setting and achieving goals can help individuals move forward in life. But for many, satisfaction never really occurs, even when the milestones are achieved.

These individuals rarely stop and smell the flowers. Instead, they keep thinking that happiness is just over the next hill, an elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or a ship that never quite comes into port.

Enjoy life one day at a time. Remember that often, more than half the fun in life is getting there. Don’t miss the joy of the process as you race to the finish line.

Strive to avoid rigidity and inflexibility by embracing openness, diversity and change. Lifestyles that are governed by tight boundaries, stereotyped roles and an overabundance of rules create a brittle, static existence which is prone to cracking or breaking under stress.

You can be flexible and tolerant and also be principled and strong in character. Stereotypical thinking leads to a world where the sun rarely rises and the nights are without stars.

Review priorities frequently. Examine your commitment to relationships and compare this commitment to energy spent acquiring material things and other ego-inflating endeavors. How much time do you spend talking to your spouse, children, friends and other relatives?

Positive relationships can build feelings of security and self-esteem that material things cannot permanently fulfill.

Decide to set healthy limits and boundaries in relationships. Being able to say no without feeling guilty is an important component of good mental health.

If you cast aside any negative thinking and feelings, you can use the energy you have gained to rebuild and to keep your thoughts on the positive side. Change is often not easy. It takes work, optimism and an open mind.