This week's question is, "Do New Year's resolutions fit with wishing?" The simple answer is, almost anything fits with wishing, except for anything that is evil. But for us, the specific question about New Year's resolutions wants us to say more.
Both of us used to make New Year’s resolutions and would have pretty similar experiences - similar to many people. By February, we would’ve slipped on our resolutions and then by March or April, we would abandon them all together and spend the rest of the year in regret, guilt, or frustration.
You know that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.” That was the phrase that brought Barbara to the conclusion that New Year’s resolutions were not for her. That was some years ago, but it was around the same time that she began to hear about the principles that would become her wish practice.
For Margie, she noticed a dichotomy - a split - where New Year’s resolutions fell by the wayside, yielding only the occasional bout of guilt. Coincidentally, she began to realize that the informal practice she now calls wishing was yielding real fruit. For one thing, New Year’s resolutions, while well-intentioned, could be unrealistic. However, she found in her life that often things she wanted, came to her. In other words, wishes come true!
A wish practice is more robust than a practice of New Year’s resolutions. Wishing allows for shifting circumstances and doesn’t mess with the “how to get'' what we want. Besides, wishes can be obsolesce, put on hold, or shifted until next year. Barbara has been at her wish practice a year or two longer than Margie and has come to realize that her overflowing schedule is the result of how many of her wishes have come true.
Let’s reinforce our understanding of avoiding the “how” our heart’s desires are going to come to us and concentrate instead on the good feelings we will have when those desires are fulfilled.
If you have already made a list of New Year’s resolutions, but would like to turn them into wishes, pull out your list and see if you can discern the desires of your heart that are represented by each resolution. For example, one common resolution is “I will go to the gym three times a week.” The heart’s underlying desire for that resolution might be “I want to be fit enough to go on a 5-mile hike on weekends this summer.” Or it could simply be, “I want to be in the best possible health for me.”
Write the corresponding wish under each resolution and then think about a baby step that would carry you in the general direction of your heart’s desire to have that wish come true. Continuing with the “being fit” example, maybe that baby step is to check out local gyms and see if there's a class that you would like to take. Or maybe it’s finding a walking club in your neighborhood or getting out to the mall with a walking group each week.
We will talk more about this in future posts, but we invite you to contact us if you would like to make an appointment for us to help you in converting your resolutions to wishes.
Next week, we’re going to talk about “Lessons from These Times” - what to do about the way we used to plan. Until then,
Peace and All Good
Margie and Barbara
The Wish Mavens
Photo Credit
The photo featured in this post was taken by (and is copyrighted by) Margaret A. Herrick.