Welcome to 2009! This year has started off with a bang and here we are already well into the month with our eye on February fast approaching. It seems like we move from one holiday or event to another led by store displays, the media and a vast array of things on our "to do list." But before you find yourself busy with spring cleaning or summer vacations, let's take a look at the year ahead, put on the thinking cap and make some plans that will leave you smiling and more fulfilled this time next year.
 
There's so much talk about the need for resolutions at this time of year and I would like to propose a little something different. Why? Because resolutions are always filled with good intentions and hope for a better life this year than we had last year, but they also carry the experience and nagging thoughts that we've been here before ... without success. Resolutions are often created from an awareness of lack, fear or frustration - all negative emotions. Resolutions hold the energy of moving away from something we don't want rather than moving towards something we do want. "I resolve ..." initiates from an experience of not being, doing or having enough. Many of us are all too familiar with what happens when a month or two from now we find that our good intentions have become a source of disappointment and self-recrimination and we sink into overwhelm-induced inertia ... and give the resolutions up.
 
So what's the option? Creating a "Theme for the Year" is the perfect choice because it's YOU focused. Choosing a theme for the year is decision making at its best because it is initiated from positive thoughts and feelings of what you want to experience more of. It is fundamentally rooted in desire and expansiveness, and richly steeped in possibilities. It is broad enough for you to become creative in your goals and actions and when kept simple in title it is easy to identify with and keep you on the track of positive change. Setting a theme for the year is answering the whisperings of your inner wisdom whose role is to persistently and faithfully invite you to a place of feeling better and becoming more and more of who you truly are. It's fun, exciting, energetic, and invites you to think ... think hard and think big. 
 
Your "Theme of the Year" is what will help drive your healthy decisions, initiate your actions and move you forward in a compelling way, deliberately creating your life. It will help you to know what to say "yes" to and "no thanks" to. Here are a couple of helpful hints to get you on your way: