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Journaling Prompt – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Step 2: Contemplate

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
New Year's Resolution
[Photo by: Keven Law]

I love making lists. I make a lot of lists. Perhaps too many lists. Okay, I make way too many list.

However, a list of resolutions isn’t like any other list. It’s a special list, thus requires a special process ensuring each and every item belongs there and is feasible.

Therefore I am posting this special “New Years Resolutions Series”, to provide a surefire system to compile a successful New Year resolutions list.

Step 1

Reminisce.

Step 2

In this week’s prompt we are going to reflect on the memories we have gathered last week and contemplate.

Go over your notes or list from last week and write down under each resolution or dream:

  1. What had helped you to meet your resolutions in the past/last year?
  2. What had prevented you from fulfilling your wishes in the past/last year?
  3. What do realized resolutions have in common?
  4. What do unsatisfied resolutions have in common?

As you reflect you may come up with some new understandings and self revelations – write them down as well.

Step 3

List.

Step 4

Choose.

Share

What new understandings and self revelations have you come up with? Share your process by leaving a comment on this post. I love to discuss prompts with you!

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Journaling Prompt – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Step 1: Reminisce

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
New Year's Resolution
[Photo by: Kat]

December means celebrations, holidays and elevated spirits but it also means the year’s end. If we plan in advance we are already thinking about next year’s resolutions.

Last year I posted a special New Year’s Resolutions Series on Creativity Prompt – offering three different ways to come up with your new year’s resolutions: the traditional way, the clairvoyant way and the action based way.

This year I am posting another series, concentrating on how to choose the best new year’s resolutions.

Step 1

The system includes 4 steps and the first step is to reminisce.

For this step you may go back in time as far as you wish. Either look solely at 2009 or look at the past 5 years, 10 years, 25 years or even look back at your childhood years.

Review your past year or years and take notes. Write down lesson learned, missions accomplished, dreams fulfilled, goals met, etc.

At this stage all you have to do is bring up memories. Don’t analyze. Certainly do not criticize. Don’t replicate goals. Just write down what you remember – resolution-wise – from years past.

Step 2

Contemplate.

Step 3

List.

Step 4

Choose.

Share

Are you a resolution person? Have you conformed to your past years’ resolutions? Share by leaving a comment on this post. I love discussions!

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Journaling Prompt #32 – A Year In Review

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Year end
Today, on the year end, just before you are about to embark on achieving your new year’s resolutions, it is the perfect time to review the past year. It is time to look at 2008 under a magnifying glass and take notes.

Leave criticism and self bashing out of this report! Only constructive inspection is allowed and for every fault you can find – add at least two admirable achievements you’ve had during the past year.

This week’s Journaling Prompt is to thoroughly review the year 2008 and to put your little trip down memory lane in writing.

The following questions may offer you some guidance:

  1. If you’d sum up the year 2008 in one sentence – what sentence would it be?
  2. What is your most joyous memory from 2008?
  3. What event has been most remarkable for you in 2008?
  4. Which of your 2008 goals did you meet?
  5. What resolution was the hardest to keep? Why? Which was the easiest resolution?
  6. In which ways have you developed and which were your setbacks?
  7. If you were able to change one thing in the past year, what would it be?
  8. What would you not have changed, had you given the opportunity (Despite some harsh circumstances)? Why?
  9. What decision or decisions you’ve made in 2008 were most influential?
  10. Who were the main players in your life in 2008?
  11. Which new friends have you met in 2008? Have you let a friendship get loose? Why?
  12. What book was your 2008 favorite? What song? Which movie?
  13. What new things have you tried in the past year?
  14. What traditions did you keep in 2008? Which traditions did you miss?
  15. What was the most important lesson you’ve learned in 2008?
  16. What new things have you learned about yourself in 2008?
  17. What were the greatest challenges that ran across you in 2008?
  18. What/who motivated you throughout the year?
  19. What major change has 2008 brought to you or do you feel you’re at a status-quo?
  20. If you’d sum up the year 2008 in a single word – what word would it be?

Hopefully these questions has assisted you in your year end review. You might have a clearer view of what your 2009 is about to be (your BEST ever).

Share –

For me 2008 has been blissful albeit challenging. I have lived most of 2008 in Dublin, Ireland – a country I had not been to before. I have come to love the friendliness of the Irish people and to admire the bright green slopes in the Irish country side. Fresh out of my wedding, I moved to a place far away from all my family and friends and have established the strongest relationship with my amazing husband. I have visited beautiful countries, including Iceland – a mesmerizing land. On top of that, I have left a job I was good at (being a lawyer) and started this blog and authored a great book on creativity, with both I am very proud.

2009 has a pretty big pair of shoes to fill…

How about you? How was your 2008? Share bits and pieces from your year end review by leaving a comment to this post.

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Inspiration Prompt #32 – A New Year Brings A New Opportunity

Monday, December 29th, 2008
New Year - New Opportunity
[Photo by: Jesus Solana]

When I was young my big sister used to tell me that I should try to behave extra nicely on the New Year’s Eve & day as the way I behave then reflects on the way I conduct myself throughout the entire year. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young girl’s small shoulders. The ability to ruin the entire year ahead based on a single day of misconduct…

But you know what – it isn’t true. There isn’t one day which can influence the entire year and the days of the year are never homogeneous. There are bad days and there are good days. Ups and downs.

One thing that the New Year Eve does represent for me, though, is: opportunity.

An opportunity for a change. An opportunity for taking your own life under control and taking responsibility. An opportunity to stop the vicious cycle of a self debilitating dialogue that goes like this: “If I didn’t manage to {insert something you really want in your life in a verb form}, I am never going to do it.” or “If I didn’t stop {insert a bad habit}, I’d never stop it”.

You can and you will!!!

This week’s inspiration prompt is all about the physiological window of opportunity that the new year brings along.

Grab this opportunity and take control – Be powerful!

Share –

What does the new year’s eve represent for you?
What opportunities do you see in the coming year?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts and opinions with me!

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Journaling Prompt #31 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 3

Wednesday, December 24th, 2008

Pencils and moleskines
[Photo by: Paul Worthington, @Flickr]

This is the third (and last) prompt in a series of journaling prompts dealing with New Year’s resolutions.

By now we have covered the traditional way of forming new years resolutions and the clairvoyant and more inspirational way of going about it.

This week’s journaling prompt suggests a third method of laying down your new years resolutions, which is the Action Way.

The action way is very effective for a more visual person (like myself) who needs to actually see a picture that stands behind a word in order to get to the bottom of it. This method is also fantastic for anyone who finds it difficult to follow a strictly formed resolution (like myself…) as it yields more amorphous goals, which can be interpreted and changed as life changes through time, but still provide general guidance.

The principle of the action way is to compile a list of “words to live by“, which is a short list of single action words that you would like to do more of in the coming year. The next step is to pick a corresponding picture for each action word and make a vision board – other digitally or on a hard-copy – of your action words and corresponding photos.

I have used Flickr’s mosaic tool to make a mosaic out of my corresponding photos and then downloaded it to my computer and added my action words to each picture with Picasa 3. I printed the edited image with a laser jet printer, cut out each individual image and made a vision board, using Decoupage.

This is my vision board for the year 2009:

New Year's resolutions - the action way - my vision board

Share –

How are you going about making your New Year’s Resolutions?
Which method of the last three journaling prompts did you find most effective for you?
Have you prepared your own vision board for the year 2009?
What is your most prominent resolution for 2009?

Leave a comment and share your thoughts!!!

For all of you celebrating Christmas today I wish a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

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Journaling Prompt #30 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 2

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Reach [Photo by: James Jordan, @Flickr]

This is the second prompt in a series of journaling prompts on forming your new year’s resolutions.

Last week I have laid down the basics of the traditional and more straightforward way of coming up with a list of goals for the year 2009.

Today I am going to suggest a new way of going about making your new year’s resolutions. As I am a “big picture” kind of a gal, who is not always sure what her next step is going to be but knows exactly where she wants to get to, I have come up with an original way of planning the year to come and I call it: “The Clairvoyant Way“.

This week’s journaling prompt is about how to embark on making your New-Year’s Resolutions, the clairvoyant way…

Like its name suggests the clairvoyant way is calling you to foresee your future. Try to form a vision of where you want to see yourself in a year from now –

What accomplishments have you made? what major milestones have you had? How do you feel? Where do you live? Who do you live with? Do you look differently? and so on and so forth.

The more precise and detailed your vision is, the more effective you are going to be in achieving your new year’s goals.

Write down your vision as a short story and read it over and over again during the next year. This story is going to provide you with the inspiration and the motivation you need for actually getting there and live up to your short story.

Share –

Are you thinking of giving the clairvoyant way a try? Do you find it helpful?
If so, what is your visionary story? If not, what faults do you find in it?

Leave a comment and share your very appreciated thoughts with me.

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Journaling Prompt #29 – New Year’s Resolutions Series – Part 1

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Out of time
[Photo by:Orvalrochefort @ Flickr]

It is that time of year…

As directorates of corporations all over the world are busy preparing the annual reports and forecasts, we too are pondering on the year that has elapsed and the year that is coming. We too are preparing our annual reports and our forecasts, only we call it: “New Year’s Resolutions”.

In preparation for the year 2009 I have come up with a series of three journaling prompts, each one suggesting a different way to go about our new-year’s planning process:

  1. The traditional way – preparing a catalog of resolutions.
  2. The clairvoyant way – foreseeing the future.
  3. The action way – compiling a list of words to live by.

You may choose any of the above methods, all of them together or a different way altogether which works better for you.

This week’s journaling prompt is about the traditional way to embark on making your New-Year’s Resolutions.

The traditional way is the most straightforward of all methods and is best for people who know exactly what they want to achieve (i.e.: getting fitter) in the coming year or which things to avoid (i.e.: eating junk-food) etc.

Some pointers on how to compile an effective catalog of New-Year’s Resolutions:

  1. Write your resolutions on paper. Putting your goals down to paper anchors them. It gives you a sense of accountability and also gives you something tangible to go to when your resolutions will fade away as time goes by.
  2. Narrow the span of your resolutions. One of the glorious things about the holiday season is the great spirit it casts all over us. The sensation of a new beginning is exhilarating. One of the downfalls of the omnipotence feeling is the tendency of making unfeasible resolutions. Make sure that you choose goals that you can actually reach in the scope of a single year. “Becoming a Billionaire” is sweet, but start with “saving/earning at least [such and such] per annum”.
  3. Focus. This is just a different facet of how to deal with the “New Year’s Omnipotence Syndrome“. After you have narrowed down the scope of your resolutions, reduce the number of goals you wish to achieve. Our lives are hectic enough, don’t overfill your plate. Choose the 10 most prominent goals you are going to achieve in 2009.
  4. Share. The accountability factor is up again. After you have written down your list of resolutions, share them with your significant other, friends, parents, siblings, children or your internet friends – anyone who can make you accountable, and moreover, can support you through thick and thin and make sure you achieve your goals.

Share –

How do you come up with your New-Year’s Resolutions? Have you any tips to share? Leave a comment and share with me.

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Inspiration Prompt #19 – New Year Greetings and a Giveaway

Monday, September 29th, 2008
Seagulls and sunrise
Image by 5348 Franco via Flickr

Today is the new year’s eve, according to the Hebrew calendar. The beginning of a new year is always a good opportunity for an internal check-in. New resolutions. New wishes and dreams. An opportunity to look afresh at life and re-sketch my path in it.

I enjoy pondering both on the Jewish new year and on January 1st. Exhausting any opportune moment to go back to the drawing board of life and making sure I’m not walking on the wrong path too long.

I would like to celebrate the new year with a giveaway for you!!!

Giveaway –

Book cover of
Book cover via Amazon

I have a copy of the book: Visual Chronicles by: Linda Woods and Karen Dinino to give away. It is a beautiful book, filled with loads of creativity.

You may click on the link to look inside the book on Amazon.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post and write how are you celebrating or going to celebrate the new year and on which date or dates?

I will draw one happy winner on October 14th, which is Sukkot’s eve. So make sure to stay tuned for the winner’s announcement.

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