Happy New Year everyone! Who doesn’t like a fresh start, a clean slate and the smell of new? Well a New Year kind of gives you that feeling and it is kind of exciting. I was talking to a couple of friends beginning of the year and they were sharing how glad they were that 2017 is over as it had been a bad year for them. To be honest I had a share of my challenges too in 2017, but isn’t that life with its ups and downs?

As you face the New Year, with it’s new beginnings, what do you envision? Time waits for no man, and how you start your year will greatly impact the rest of it. If you lose yourself in “I’m still in the holiday spirit” during the month of January, you will be surprised you are soon in the middle of the year with nothing accomplished. Before taking charge of 2018, you need to go to your balance sheet and kind of close your books for 2017. Are there people/relationships you need to make right, any promises not kept whether to yourself or others, any goals not achieved and why? Use January to not only plan your New Year but also to tie any loose ends from 2017 that may make you to be ineffective in 2018.

We need to leave the old baggage of 2017 in order to embrace the New Year successfully, as mixing the old and the new never always work. The Bible tells us in Mark 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.” The same way for us too, we cannot jump to new resolutions without taking inventory of what goals we had not achieved in 2017 and why? This exercise will help us to align ourselves successfully for the New Year. If we carry the “old wineskins” of 2017 which symbolizes our thoughts and inner self and try putting new wine which may symbolize new ideas, we may end up bursting the wine skins & losing the new wine. New ideas are vigorant and require a new mindset that is ready to develop the ideas, from a mere dreams to reality. This requires a mental toughness and alertness;but if the mind is bogged down with old unresolved issues it will constantly be holding one back to reaching his or her full potential.

If you have goals set out for the New Year, the first three months of the year are crucial and should be used wisely to give you a good head start. I wish you all a Happy New Year filled with great new beginnings and adventures.