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(Photo from the New Years’ Eve Party we attended)

A Valuable Tool for Planning for a New Year

The New Year creates an opportune time to reflect and focus on our goals for the upcoming year.  Over the holidays I read Dr. Sukhi Muker’s inspiring book, Beyond Body, Beyond Mind, and thought his concept of the Life Mastery Wheel (p.127) was very relevant to the setting of goals for the New Year.  The idea involves drawing around a plate on a piece of paper and then dividing this circle into 10 equal parts.  Next, label each piece of pie with an area of your life that requires commitment and action.  For example, Dr. Sukhi recommends:  Vocation, Family, Physical, Financial, Spiritual, Character, Emotional, Intellect, Quality of Life and Social.  Then rate each domain of your life by thinking of the central hub of the wheel being a zero, and the outer rim being a 10.  Shade in each portion of the pie according to the score you give yourself for each section.  Once this is complete, take a look at your wheel and determine, is it symmetrical or asymmetrical?

The Life Mastery Wheel will give you a reality check as to where you need to focus more time and energy to take action.  How well would your wheel roll down the street? That’s how well you’re moving through life (p. 126).  ~ Dr. Sukhi Muker

What a wonderful visual image for helping us keep track of the areas of our lives that need more focus in order that we can feel more symmetrical or in balance to allow our wheel to roll more smoothly on our life-journey.  Writing down our goals does keep us more accountable and increases the chances that we will accomplish them.  In Beyond Body, Beyond Mind, Dr. Sukhi suggests several recommendations for helping us reach our goals such as writing out our vision for each section of our Life Mastery Wheel, one domain per day for 10 days, to be very clear about our intentions.

After completing the Life Mastery Wheel, we may feel discouraged that we’re not higher in the majority of the domains.  However, one may have become stuck in one’s story, believing that he/she is the product of his/her upbringing or life experiences and that the trajectory for one’s future is already set.  However, our past does not have to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Do you realize that our thoughts create our emotions and our emotions create our actions?  We have the power to change our thoughts.

We are what we think!

Imagine you are walking down a street and a dog, with no owner, is heading toward you.  If you are a dog-lover, you are likely to wonder if the dog is okay or lost, hungry or thirsty etc.  These thoughts would lead to feelings of compassion and kindness and your actions would probably involve petting the dog, searching for a phone number and name on the collar etc.  If you were scared of dogs and the exact same scenario occurred you would likely be thinking that the dog was going to bite or attack you.  You would be feeling anxious and scared and your actions would involve backing away or running away.  Two completely opposite sets of thoughts, emotions and actions for the exact same scenario, and it would all have started with your thoughts.

“You Are What You Think” ~ If you have goals for which you dare to dream, you are operating from a growth mindset and you are creating possibilities for yourself.  If you are stuck in negative thoughts and believe you are “not good enough” then you are creating your own limitations and you are caught in a fixed mindset. Challenge yourself to think from a growth mindset and push yourself a little out of your comfort zone.

Passion is energy.  Feel the power that comes from focusing on the things that excite you.

~ Oprah Winfrey

We must be willing to give up what we are in order to become what we will be.

~ Albert Einstein

Warmly,