This year, let's shake it up!

Here we are again, at that point in the cycle where we make pledges and vows out of an enthusiasm for a new life, a new way of being an end to the "blah, blah same old, same old" that has ruled the last 365 days of our teeny tiny lives. I hear you! This year I am embracing honesty and simplification. What's the use of vowing to do stuff that deep down inside you know already has an expiration date? I am embarking on a slow and steady trek towards a vision each of us holds dear in our hearts. We try, we do our best, we sometimes fail? We start again! This year I am making 4 agreements with myself and they are as follows:

1 Being in integrity with my word.

I understand that as, holding my own words as sacred. Saying only that which I am willing to uphold. Including: being truthful, not gossiping and showing up on time. If I say I will be somewhere at a certain time, I am there. If I say I will attend, a meeting or a party, I show up. If I say I am going to give something, I give it, be it money, time, help advice, I do not verbally engage in negativity, and I encourage those around me to do the same. Holding true to this one simple principle is the foundation of transformative personal power.

2. Be curious.

Curiosity is defined as: The desire to know or learn about anything. I am fascinated by everything. Why some trees didn't drop all their dead leaves, how exactly fog forms, why the brain latches onto some musical phrases and not others, is 'gimbap' Korean for sushi? etc. Being open to learning new things is what keeps us fresh, interesting and 'supple' mentally and physically.

3. Be Creative.

Just as curiosity is essential to our analytical mind, being creative is absolutely essential to our non analytical mind or right-brain. Einstein is credited with this quote: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." One cannot be creative without using one's imagination, and creativity opens the mind to new ways of thinking which is the only way we solve problems. Are you feeling stuck in your life, career, job or relationship? Get creative. Dust off a craft or hobby that you have been neglecting. Find a new one, learn to make music, sew, cross stitch, woodwork, build stuff, write, paint, draw, even if it is only doodling. As your creative juices start to flow so will answers to problems you thought would never be resolved.

4. Be here now!

Ram Dass's famous title hits the nail on the head. There is no past, only memories our minds dwell on, there is no future, again it is a place our minds go to hang out, there is only the present, and the present is our point of power. Each moment we are living in the now, is an opportunity to choose how we want to be, how we want to act, what we want to say and share.

Our choices are made in the present, this is where we live. This is where the changes are made that give us the life we want to live.

So if you are looking for a radical new you, a spectacular shift in how you show up in life, and how life shows up for you, I suggest you follow these four agreements and watch the miracles unfold.