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This week: Looking Towards The New Year Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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Do you have any goals for the New Year? How will you go about them? The approach you take can make all the difference!
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about changes...
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With the holidays behind us, it’s time to ask the question... how has your year been? Has it been good? Bad? A bit of both?
My year has been filled with ups and downs. One of my cats passed away. My health hasn’t been the greatest. At some points, my mental health took a bit of a dip. My romantic life has been somewhat chaotic. But I graduated from university and was accepted onto a Master’s degree. I won a couple of Quill Awards. I made some good friends. I’ve experimented with different forms of writing. So it hasn’t been all awful.
The beginning of a new year can bring new hope. A fresh sheet to put straight those things that can do with improving. It may just be a psychological start to our projects, but it can be helpful to draw a line somewhere and say, “From here on out, I’m going to do better,” or “I’m going to take a different approach”. Whilst there are no guarantees, it doesn’t hurt to try.
The key to success with any changes is to keep them realistic. That’s my experience, anyway. If I create a long list of desired improvements, there is a significant risk of failure, because I’m taking on too much at once, far more than I can keep up with. Self-imposed pressure can become overwhelming and it’s too easy, then, to collapse underneath it and give up. That then leads to feeling worse about myself than I did to begin with, and that doesn’t get anyone anywhere.
It’s better to begin with small, achievable changes that do not require a huge effort. Changes that can soon become a part of one’s routine. When they are accomplished, they can give you a feel-good boost, leading to other changes, and so on. It may take longer to achieve a goal that way, but there is better chance of success over the longer term.
Many people give up on their New Year’s goals within the first month. It is understandable, because we get settled into our lives and our routines. Even if those routines don’t make us very happy, they are our comfort zone. Stepping out of that comfort zone can be daunting.
I have several goals for the next year. I’ve already realised that doing a Master’s degree is a whole different ballgame than an undergraduate degree, and I need to spend more time and effort on it. I need to get more organised. I need to get healthier – I have also realised that as you get older, your health isn’t as resilient as it used to be, so I need to be more sensible. If I were to tell myself that from the 1st of January I’m going to get up early, go for a walk, spend eight hours studying, have no treats whatsoever, and I’ll get to bed by 10 PM, my goals aren’t going to last beyond a week. It’s unlikely I’ll even crawl out of bed for that first walk early in the morning. It’s cold out there! A better approach is to cut down on the snacking, but still allow myself the occasional treat. Go for a nice walk in the afternoon when it’s not pouring it down, maybe once a week, and rediscover how much I used to enjoy spending time in nature. Allow myself to settle into my studies and teach myself that I can come to grips with academic materials at this level. Build up my self-belief and self-esteem. Have some fun with it, because when you enjoy something you’ll want to do more of it.
We human beings can be incredibly hard on ourselves. We can punish ourselves for perceived flaws and inflict a lot of damage. The saying that nobody is perfect is a true one. With that in mind, I have some questions. Why is it easier to treat others with compassion and care? Why is it easier to forgive others than yourself? Why don’t you deserve to be treated with kindness? So what if not everything in your life is the way that you feel it ought to be! That doesn’t mean that you have to constantly berate yourself. Be gentle. You’ll get there. One step at the time.
I wish you well,
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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The Spiritual Newsletter Team
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Spiritual: December 27, 2017 Issue [#8675]
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