Win Harper | Life and Leadership Coach

Our Zumba exercise class had twice the normal attendees on Monday.  The start of a new year and I suppose people have made “resolutions” to exercise more.  Setting intentions for the year is a good idea.  In the last two blogs I talked about the evaluation of my 2009 intentions, and then I “gave myself an A” for 2010.

Rick Jarow, who teaches at the Omega Institute, uses the term ‘trajectories” in place of goals.  I like that concept.  We oftentimes beat ourselves up for not reaching our goals, when we need to celebrate the fact that we are on the right trajectory towards them. 

One of my goals for 2009 was to get my weight down to 180 pounds.  I didn’t achieve that weight, and at the same time I learned a lot about food, and started exercising more during the year.  The result is that I am feeling much better about myself.  That is a pretty good achievement.

Last year, Elizabeth and I developed a new session called, “Future Gifts for the Present Moment.”  Through guided imagery we take people 20 years into the future to visit their “Future Self.”  By developing a relationship with the future self, the wiser self, the highest self, or intuition, whatever name you want to use, you develop a sense of the continuum of time.  Or rather, you learn that life is timeless, and that hours, minutes, seconds, and years are only artificial measurements. For instance, how old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

Resolutions, goals, intentions, or trajectories are important.  Most people, however are only successful when they are held accountable.  That can be done with a coach, a friend, a partner, or themselves. I recently found an interesting website:  http://www.futureme.org.  Basically, you write yourself an email to be delivered to you on a future date you specify.  The idea is “based on the principle that memories are less accurate than emails.”  There are an unlimited number of uses for this site, and holding yourself accountable could be one.  Imagine receiving an email from yourself on January 1, 2011, listing what you wanted to do in 2010.  It would be a reminder to look back at the year, and see if you were on your trajectories.  You could then celebrate your successes, and make plans for 2011.

I sent my “Give Yourself an A” exercise to myself.  It will be delivered on January 1, 2011.