Q. So it is 2016 and I am faced with looking at my life again. The beginning of a year is like cleaning out my closet, no easy endeavor. I really need a way to do this so it doesn’t seem so daunting. Any ideas?
A. The first thing I think of is a 2016 Life Inventory, much like your closet. This inventory would list all the different parts of your life, breaking them down in detail and giving you pause to reflect on how they work for you.
For example: How do you deal with anger?
1. Do you hold on to it and file it for later?
2. Do you explode immediately before thinking about it?
3. Do you act it out in a passive-aggressive manner?
4. Do you appropriately express your anger in a timely manner and let it go?
Get the idea? Remember when taking your inventory, keep what works and work to get rid of what doesn’t.
Here are some additional inventory items:
How Do You Deal With The Following:
1. Forgiveness
2. Your weight
3. Pleasing others at your own expense
4. Compassion
5. Managing you money
6. Having healthy friendships
7. Expressing negative emotions
8. Admitting when you are wrong
9. Reaching out when you need help
10. Finding quiet time for yourself
Taking a life inventory could become a part of your daily life. It doesn’t have to wait until the beginning of a new year. The goal is to make healthy changes when the need arises, not wait for a specific date.
A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. They work for a short time. They fizzle out because they are attempts at changing ourselves from the outside in. Real change happens from the inside out. Let’s make New Year’s Revelations. Then we will truly ring out the old and ring in the new.
