What will you do differently in 2017?

Well, that’s Christmas over and done with for another year, and I have had a lovely time with my family. Now we all have a little breathing space before the New Year arrives, and if you are one of the lucky ones you might even have time to do a little reflection on how 2016 went for you before the year comes to an end.

I have been at home with my daughter, so haven’t had much time to do this myself, as I have been taking advantage of the quiet mornings and spending time with my daughter, such a luxury not having to get up and do the school run!
Though today, I made sure I got out of bed at my usual time and made the time to reflect back on the year before I head up north to Aviemore to welcome in the New Year. 

I started by thinking about all that I have achieved this year and quickly began to feel a little dissatisfied with myself as I realised that there are projects I wanted to complete that are still a work in progress. Rather than focus on this, I decided to take a different approach and I asked myself what can I do differently next year?

It struck me that the one simple thing I will change next year is to stop setting such high expectations of myself. As I sat reflecting on this, I realised that setting such significant expectations on what I want to do in any given week or month puts tremendous amounts of pressure on me. Often, this can result in me working long hours, becoming tired, overwhelmed and sometimes a little disheartened. 

I wonder how many of you out there have experienced this?

I am pretty sure it’s not just me, and what’s more I know that the greater the expectations I set for myself, the greater the disappointment I experience. I even write about this in my book, "The Reinvention Method" and while I am good at lowering the expectations I have of others and letting go of outcomes; I haven’t been so good at doing this for myself and I am guilty of expecting far too much of myself.

However life happens, and things come up unexpectedly and it's so much kinder if we can lower our expectations, be more flexible and give ourselves the same consideration we give to others. That way, when we don't get the things done that we expected to do, we won't feel so disappointed or disheartened as we have had the foresight to let go of outcomes and go with the ebb and flow of life.

If when you do reflect on your 2016 you find yourself feeling like me, why not consider if you too need to lower your own expectations. You may find that releasing the pressure, allows you to give the correct amount of your time to those things that are most important to you in 2017.

This will not stop me wanting to achieve more success in 2017, I am confident that through being kinder to myself by dropping these expectations I will continue to grow both my business and myself.

I am sure if we both do this we will achieve so much more than we ever expect in the year ahead!
Love

Avril xxx
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Join me for my Free annual New Year Generative Trance Meditation click here! You can also connect with me over at my Private Facebook Coaching Group I am in there most days for support and encouragement.