My Year End Reflections
Different Places: We are all in different places and as we learn & grow, our places in life will change. Like a GPS coordinate, our life purpose helps drive our health & happiness to the next destination. And, if we ever start to lose our direction, we can tap into supportive social circles to help motivate & inspire us to reach our life goals.
Future Self: Our future selves can be defined by asking two questions: 1) What do you want to achieve? 2) What do you want to change? When we use our answers to create a written future self statement, we give ourselves a clear mirror of the skills, talents, knowledge and daily practices we need to develop. Revisiting this future self allows us to reflect on who we are becoming. It, also, helps us to prioritize what we learn, share, do and the groups that we join. Let’s make our future self shine by incorporating everything we learn into our everyday life.
Reflective Thinking: Reflective thinking allows us to learn from yesterday and improve today. We need to take time every day to think and to ask ourselves, “Do our daily priorities include actions to improve ourselves?” Reflective thinking helps us to begin our day with a smooth ‘take off’ and end each day with a smooth ‘landing’. Just remember, whatever we do or don’t do consistently will drive our health & happiness. Reflective thinking allows us to make better decisions to improve our lives.
Happiness: Happiness is a barometer of how well we balance the health of our mind, body, spirit, social, finance & work. The balance of these six health elements is impacted by everything that we think & do. Therefore, happiness is not the end goal; rather, it’s the outcome of living a balanced life in all that we pursue. For a happier life, allocate time to care for all six health elements in your life.
Integrated Self: Let’s think of ourselves holistically. Everything we learn and experience influences who we are. By optimizing our internal and external environments, we contribute to the body’s innate ability to heal and to create health. Let’s look towards all aspects of our lives and decide what is adding value and what is not adding value to our health & happiness. Then, through continuous learning, doing & reflections, make improvements for the health, healing & happiness that you are seeking.
Collaboration: When we involve others, the rate in which we complete goals, learn & laugh increases. The collaboration of goals, activities and interests makes the work more enjoyable, more fun and more fulfilling. Let’s use this win-win approach to reap its rewards to improve ourselves and others.