The Vinyasa of Goal Setting

Perhaps it is the long dark days here in Northwest BC that have been getting to me, or perhaps it is simply that that this time of the year is one of darkness, contemplation and introspection.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the passing of time and our rituals to mark the passing of time and even though this calendar we follow is purely arbitrary, and really a new year could be any day of these 365 days that mark our circumnavigation of the sun, there is something powerful about a collective people celebrating this start of something new.

To me, the year’s end and new beginnings are an embodiment of the vinyasa we speak of in yoga, the shedding of the past and renewal of what is to come.  It is an exciting, creative time, once you can really come to peace with the letting go of the literal and metaphorical old.  Out of the dust of the ashes come new possibility, but you have to go through your process.

It is also a time to think of think of our cyclical cellular regeneration.  Think about the incredible regenerative capacity of our human body.  Did you know that we breakdown and replace over 24 billion cells a day? Or that every component of every cell in our body is replaced totally within a nine-month cycle?  We’re literally bodies in a state of flux – of dynamic evolution.

It’s not easy, yet if you open yourself to it, and begin to believe how vast our capacity is to remake ourselves, create new habit patterns, embrace new ideas and more positive thought / behavioral patterns, you’re almost halfway there.  It sounds new-agey I know, but seriously, if our cells regenerate themselves continuously, don’t you think we’re capable of mentally and emotionally creating shifts?  We’re all capable of evolution, we’ve been doing it for centuries.

Writing our goals down is the first step.  A simple way to tackle them is to divide them into three categories. Personal, Health and Professional.

• Find a clean sheet of paper and list at least two goals under each category.
• Know that when you write them down, you are creating tangible connections to these ideas, in fact they metamorphose from ideas into reality.
• Keep your goals flexible, yet you must have a date to be accountable to them.
• Keep them S.M.A.R.T.:  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant (or realistic), Time-Bound.  Yes, it’s good to reach for the stars, but be realistic.
• And use them, fold that piece of paper and tuck it into your purse, wallet, wherever you are able to read them and refer to your goals often.

One of mine is to get even a mini- yoga practice in each day, so here I go.

Namaste.    Light + lightness for the new year.