Sitting on my couch, among my new set of cushions, reflecting on 2009 and thinking ahead to 2010, I’m struck by how certain times of year lend themselves particularly to this kind of introspective thinking.
Easter, with the promise of spring and new life, September with the start of the new school year (and even us grownups still remember that feeling!) and of course Christmas with the impending New Year.
Funny old days, in early December, are they not? It’s very, very dark, at both ends of the day, and recently it’s felt like it’s never going to stop raining. One can hardly remember the sun or the sunny days of Summer and it seems an awfully long way off to next summer, that’s for sure! The couch seems the best place to be, with Strictly or X-Factor on the TV and the heating on full.
The New Year is coming quicker than lightning but all we want to do is wind down to Christmas!
On the one hand some of the country go into a spending spree and Christmas decorating spasm, and on the other hand, some people are quietly emailing tales of woe, stories of quiet desperation and harsh self-criticism about another year gone by – wasted! Months of procrastination, prevarication leading to …………….absolutely no results.
Do you secretly feel really cross because your 2009 has not progressed you to where you want to be, financially? Perhaps you have been one of the pension holders or property investors affected by the credit crunch in some way or other and you rather hopefully had all your eggs in one basket?
Perhaps you are really sick fed up about going into ANOTHER Christmas worrying about the money side of things? Do you resent having to buy presents on your credit card, only to spend another year paying it off?
I know many of us in the Money Gym have been affected by the property market doldrums in one way or another and a few of us have been adversely affected by the banking crisis too, in the business lane of the Wealth Highway. The negative ruling on the bank charges appeal this week was bad news for many too.
Perhaps you are self employed or a business owner and if so, I know that you are possibly feeling the pain, as people cut back on their spending, especially if you are offering a product or service that seems like a luxury rather than a necessity. Or perhaps you started a business in 2009 as a result of being made redundant, or the income from your savings dwindling to nothing but now you are floundering because you know nothing about marketing or sales – the lifeblood of any business.
The problem is that you “don’t know what you don’t know”. You are in a state of “unconscious incompetence” and while you may be feeling a sense of need, of urgency around your finances and your business (if you have one) you are perhaps feeling a bit lost about what you can do about it.
While you know you must do SOMETHING to make sure of your financial survival in 2010, you are pretty much guaranteed to stumped about WHAT TO DO, overwhelmed with conflicting information and now, to top it all, you are de-motivated by the time of year!
Ironically, the time of year when we often have most leisure time is the time of year we are least likely to use it to plan a better future. Distracted by parties and relatives, we put ourselves and our needs / wants last, as usual!
What could we better use our time on the couch for then?
New Year’s Resolutions? PAH! Surely it’s way too early to be thinking about those?!
Actually, I find this time of year to be the best time to be thinking about the year I want for myself, and creating my New Year’s Resolutions, except I’m not talking about those Resolutions that you never keep…………..oh no! Resolutions are usually doomed because they are based around something negative sounding like…..losing weight, getting fit, spending less.
No! I’m talking about GOALS, which are much more positive things and over the next few ezines I’m going to be sharing some tools on effective goal setting, and how you can best support yourself to achieve your goals.
It’s about thinking of how you want to be feeling next Christmas, perhaps setting some goals for 2010 that will ensure that we go into December next year feeling a million times better than we do this year.
If you can just haul yourself off the couch for a second and grab a pen, you could perhaps start to jot down the things that would need to be different next Christmas, for you to feel 100% better.
Perhaps you would like to be taking a month away, somewhere hot, like Judith does? Perhaps you would like to be able to work from abroad over Christmas and New Year, either somewhere hot or skiing in a luxury resort, surrounded by friends and family? Perhaps you would just like to hire someone to cook for everyone on Christmas Day and clear up again afterwards? Or just to be able to buy presents based on what you know the person would love, rather than what you can afford?
If you can haul yourself off that sofa and grab that pen and paper, and just start thinking about things like this, the little things that would make your life better, you are doing something positive, changing your mindset, moving forwards.
You are taking action, which by its very nature, changes things, it creates momentum. And you will know if you have ever pushed a car without power steering, from stationery to moving, it’s much easier to change direction once you have some momentum going.
If you get your thoughts, wants, wishes out of your head and onto paper, you are expressing an positive intention and apparently neither your mind nor the Universe can tell the difference between “thoughts and things”
And you are changing your thinking, from dark, dreary old December, to a hopeful and upbeat New Year, full of potential and possibilities.
And your Christmas can only be the better for that!
