11 For 2011

11 Simple Ideas For Making 2011 Your Best Year Ever!

Lao-Tzu, in Tao Te Ching, said this:
“Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.”

With a New Year upon us, I can’t think of any advice that resonates health and wellness more than that! So many times, we go into a New Year with a list of New Year’s Resolutions, following some kind of “Goal Paradigm”, “Design It” spreadsheet, or “Master Planning Tool”. These are all designed to improve our life or business for a New Year. However, most of these simply serve to complicate our lives, and end up causing us guilt later on, when we look and see that perhaps we have not yet arrived or checked off all the boxes.

This is not to say that planning and foresight is unnecessary. Quite the contrary. A healthy, successful and fulfilled life does not happen by chance, but through careful thought and maximizing each moment. However, if you’re like me, you tend to complicate things. And, we often don’t reach all our goals because we neglect the simple values that underline the goals, plans and dreams. A healthy value set always leads to healthy results. Desired results are the outcome of deliberate values. In other words, if you dream now about where you would like to be at the end of 2011, the key to that outcome is healthy values underlying your daily beliefs, thoughts, choices and actions. So, here is a refresher for 2011, with 11 Simple Ideas For Making 2011 Your Best Year Ever.


11 Simple Ideas For Making 2011 Your Best Year Ever:

1) Gratitude - Be thankful for 2010. Be thankful for all the experiences you lived, all the things you learned, and all the people you were fortunate to love. Does it get any better than this offering by William A. Ward? “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" The mindset of Gratitude is so crucial for balance, true abundance, and your happiness! So many times, our level of gratitude flexes and flows based on our circumstances or our happiness in the moment. Be reminded of the words of Kak Sri: “Gratitude is an art of painting an adversity into a lovely picture.”

2) Simplicity – Aim for simplicity in 2011. It is in simplicity that we engage the moment, embrace the creative, and excel at being who we really are. Our joy in life rises and falls exactly with how complicated we make it. When life becomes complex, it is no longer any fun! As Confucius said, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” Jesus said, “Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won’t he more surely care for you?” What a modest and yet elegant way to live: trusting that life will look after itself! Less is more in 2011!

3) Engagement – Be fully engaged in 2011. Being fully engaged speaks of being fully aware, fully involved, and fully alive. It is being present, in the moment, and not letting any part of life just pass you by. Think back to how much time you “killed” in 2010, and remember that in 2011, when you “kill” time, you’ll never get it back. Being fully engaged, alive and passionate about what we do empowers us to not waste any moment, opportunity, or relationship.

4) Thoughtfulness – Be thoughtful in 2011, both for others and yourself. Be thoughtful for others by caring a little more than you have before, showing respect at a deeper level than you have before, and going the extra mile. Thoughtfulness paves the way for the growth, advancement and empowerment of others. Be thoughtful towards yourself as well. Care for yourself and make sure you are nourished, replenished and energized. When we do not care for ourselves and focus solely on caring for others, we soon lose the ability to properly care for them because our own tank runs precariously dry.

5) Spirituality – Wisdom says that it makes sense to give room to your unique expression of spirituality in 2011. One of the things I love about being a Certified Life Coach and Certified Executive Coach is the holistic nature of what we do. Healthy spirituality is a part of our make-up as human beings, and as we respect and flow with that part of ourselves, we will continue our journey into true and complete wholeness. Some people will spend a lot of time arguing over what constitutes “true” spirituality. The wise will simply celebrate qualities such as integrity, compassion, meekness, kindness, selflessness, meditation, contemplation, and stillness. Spirituality is not a building you frequent or religion you ascribe to, but a way of living that validates all components of life. Respect your spirituality in 2011.

6) Authenticity – The art of authenticity, in essence, is all about being true to yourself. So many times, we feel a pressure to be someone we are not, or a stress to not be who we are. Authenticity is about making a conscious choice to resist that pressure, and to succumb to the temptation to simply be you! I love what Judy Garland said about authenticity: “Always be a first-rate version of yourself instead of a second-rate version of someone else.” Make a commitment to just be you in 2011, because you are amazing!

7) Laughter & Tears – Literally thousands of years ago, before medicine became a science with research and test cases, the ancient proverb of Solomon offered this guidance: “A merry heart does good, like a medicine.” Now, with our test tubes and super computers, we have validated what this man of wisdom shared all along: laughter is healthy, and benefits us at all levels: mentally, emotionally, physically, physiologically, relationally and spiritually. In the same way, tears benefit us as well. We heal through our laughter and our tears. Those who do not give healthy time to both laughter and tears end up bottled up, stressed out, and carrying an invisible label over themselves in life that screams out “Contents Under Pressure!” This is not a healthy way to live. Live healthier in 2011!

8) Purpose & Faith – Live on purpose and with faith in 2011! As the writings of the ancient Hebrew Proverb so eloquently say: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Some are dragging their feet into 2011, wondering how much worse it can get! Myself, I choose a bright, optimistic and sunny disposition! It’s always sunny side up for me! Is there any other way? In reality, your faith-box determines your whole life! So, stuff your faith-box with treasures of hope and confidence and expectation and courage and anticipation! Embrace 2011 with purpose and vision and hope and faith, believing that this year will be better than any other! Please don’t enter 2011 with the negative energy of worry, fear and stress. Be secure and understand that no matter what difficulties you faced in 2010, they were meant to shape and transform you into someone stronger, wiser, and brighter. Be secure and believe that 2011 will be amazing! Because it will, for those who see it that way!

9) Clarity – Enter 2011 with clarity. Don’t give 80% of your time to the things that drain you, those things that really are not at the top of your ability and gifted-ness. Give 80% of your time to those things that fuel your strength, those things that you make you feel alive. As Andy Stanley said: “If you really want to make a lasting impact, then you need to eliminate what you do well for the sake of what you can potentially do best.” If you struggle to define this, please pick up a copy of my recent book, Getting Where You Need To Go, found on Amazon or Chapters online. Once again, the words of the Buddha provide guidance here: “Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart, to give yourself to it.”

10) Humility – Humility is a key word for 2011. There are many mis-perceptions of humility. Some think it is about letting people walk on you and mistreat you, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is about a person who knows who they are, and who they are not. It is a man or woman who is comfortable in his or her own skin. As a result, they are very secure. As Gilbert Keith Chesterton said: “It is always the secure who are humble.” We can all resonate with the words of Benjamin Franklin: “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”

11) Selflessness – George Bernard Shaw wrote: “This is the true joy of life: being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” What more could I add to that? Be selfless in 2011, for in selflessness we find ourselves; in care for others we care for ourselves; in refreshing others we ourselves are refreshed.


Leonardo da Vinci said that, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. I hope that these 11 Simple Ideas will help you as you embrace 2011, with all its challenges and unknowns. Look within, craft the outlook, and then take the steps to make 2011 your best year ever!