New Year – New Thinking

During the last month with some of my clients, we have been occupied in reviewing the last year, as well as future forecasting for the next year. It is a delicate process – teasing out all the richness that has come from each person’s life – and subtly sensing what unique experiences each person may need or want in the coming year.

Some of the strands of wisdom that have become apparent are the following:

Very much more has been achieved by the end of the year, than could have been forecast or aimed at for, for at the beginning.
A great deal more richness in human exchange, inter-personal communication and support has occurred without a great deal of hard work to make it so.
A great deal more love was given than was sought – the challenge was receiving it!
Where someone saw only difficulties and challenges (especially in work contexts) there were always ways to re-frame the issue to see its benefits.
By taking the time to reflect and review, people saw many more reasons for happiness and enjoyment than their customary state of being.

In fact, the overall value of the review for most people, was to connect to inner resources of happiness they did not know were there. It is a great way to begin the new year!

If you haven’t done a 2023 Review yet and would like to do one for yourself, email me (penny@corpalc.com) and I’ll send you a complete set of questions that you can use to get you to the same result.

So – onto 2024 and making this your best year. Here are some unusual and useful lines of thinking designed to break you out of your norm:

New Thinking

What if life were a game that you won by having more fun, more enjoyment, more love, more adventure, than anyone else? What freedoms would you allow yourself? Unless we choose to see life differently, it is easy to become straightened into everyone else’s views of ‘hard work’, ‘getting by’ and the competitive drive of achievements, success and the scorecard. Life can have more adventure, fun, enjoyment if we so decide

What if you were to wake up tomorrow and by magic you could create the world that you would wish to live in. What would you wish for and what would you create? Each one of us has far more creative capability than we know or exercise. Our minds are extremely powerful and sometimes even just ‘thinking something into reality’ can happen, very much like an architect designing a new building. Imagining something to be true is the first step to making it so. Take action and you can quickly see a building rising up from nothing.

What if work was really an opportunity for you to explore and demonstrate your unique talents and capabilities? What permissions would you grant yourself to investigate making them greater and more powerful? We are all extremely fortunate because even if work means getting a pay-cheque – and we all have to live – work in our country can still provide enjoyment and satisfaction as well as growth and development.

Every person in your life already makes a difference to you – and you make a difference in theirs. What kind of difference do you choose to make, or is it an accident? Make a conscious choice for creating more goodness in the world. Do random acts of kindness. Be generous with your time and your attention. Listen and be present for people – they will appreciate it.

What if everyone in your world was there to do you good? What if, everyone is conspiring to bring you the best opportunities, the best experience, the most development, the greatest success? W. Clement Stone businessman and philanthropist) by his own admission was an inverse paranoid. He purposefully and consistently chose to believe that the world was plotting to do him good. He saw every difficult and challenging event as something that was meant to help him, empower him and advance his cause. How would your view of your situation change if you were to adopt this view?

Believe everyone is working to support you, to enhance your opportunities and expand your life in positive ways. I am. This article is. Such positive expectations will make it easier for all of these good things to happen and for you to be willing to receive them, when they do.

Penny Sophocleous

11 December 2023