The Best Year of Your Life

I read another book during my vacation break. It was a relatively short one, 300+ pages or so, called The Best Year of Your Life, by Debbie Ford. In the book, Ford offers three general areas of focus, or phases – Dream It, Plan It, and Live It. It sounds pretty simple, and it is, if you take the small steps necessary to take yourself through each phase. I’ll let you read it for yourself, but wanted to introduce it here briefly, in the event anyone was interested in checking it out from their local library.

If you recall my post from yesterday, my stated “challenge to myself” of writing 300,000 words in a year is part of my initiative to make 2012 the best year of my life.

Writing 300,000 words in a year may very well require more than just posting to a blog. In fact, I am sure it will require much more. But, this is a good thing as it may very well lead me down other avenues and open doors to new opportunities. That is my true goal for 2012; open new doors and explore new opportunities for myself to make it my best year.

How will I do it? I am sure I’ll find that out along the way. That is part of the fun and excitement of starting a journey without necessarily knowing the destination. Don’t get me wrong, this is very challenging for me as I am a planner. When I go on vacation, I like to have my trip pretty well planned out. Just ask my wife and she will attest that this is true. If we are away for a week, I pretty much know what I will be doing five out of the 7 days. But, this is a new journey. An important journey to be sure. It is a journey of discovery (more properly, self-discovery). I will plan along the way, taking care to ensure I do the things I need to do to achieve my dreams and live my best life.

What are you doing to make 2012 your best year?
What steps did you take today to make tomorrow better?
What steps can you take this week to improve next week?

Perhaps you have yet to take action today to make 2012 your best year. Maybe you are saying to yourself that you are too tired, or too busy. We’ve all been there. If this is you right now, then I am asking you to do me a favor. Stop for a second and follow these steps – it will take less than 30 seconds of your time.

- Stop what you are doing and concentrate on your breathing.
- Breathe in two or three times and really concentrate on the flow of your breath in and out for those few seconds. This will force your mind to stop chattering about whatever was flying around in your thoughts before you started reading this.
- Close your eyes and feel the tension in your body, then, release that tension.
- Stay in that state of relaxation as long as you want, or for as long as you can. If you struggled to remain quiet and calm for very long, don’t lose heart – you’ll get better at it the more you try it.

Now that you are calm, take satisfaction from the fact that you have now accomplished something today that will contribute to making this your best year. Congratulations, you are on your way already!