Win Harper | Life and Leadership Coach

New Year’s Eve 1993 was one of my favorites.  I was single, I was retired, and I was alone.  I had no interest in going out, so I decided to stay home and clean out my office desk.  That only took about an hour, so I decided to clean up my office, and after completing that, I cleaned up the rest of my condo, including my dishes and laundry.  It was around 11:40, so I ran some bath water and soaked into the New Year.

I entered 1994 without clutter, organized, and clean. I started going to therapy, joined a support group, took a church facilitated 12-step program, and worked at Omega for the first time. And that was the beginning of my journey.

This week we celebrate the end of 2008 and welcome in 2009.  Traditionally this is a time for reflection and resolutions.  Have you been successful in the past years with your promises to yourself?  What do you want to accomplish and be in 2009?  I going to give you an exercise to help you start your New Year.  I found it in the book, “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.  The book is wonderful and inspirational, and is filled with leadership and life lessons.  I recommend you get a copy, and read it several times.

In the meantime, here is my version of their exercise that I use in my coaching:

I want you to think about 2009 and what you want to do and achieve. Now, I want you to give yourself an A for the whole year based upon your effort and your accomplishments.

To complete the exercise, I want you to go to this time next year, and look back, and I ask that you write me a letter telling me why you deserved an A.  I want the letter to start with “Dear Win, I got my A because…” , and write about all the insights you acquired, milestones you attained during the year as if these accomplishments were already in the past.  I want you to describe in as much detail as possible how you came to achieve this extraordinary grade.  Everything must be written in the past tense.  Phrases such as, “I hope,” “I intend,” or “I will” must not appear. If you wish you may mention specific goals you reached, but I am more interested in the person you will have become by January 2010.  I am interested in that person’s attitude, feelings, and worldviews after you have done all you wished to do and have become everything you wanted to be.  “And I want you to fall passionately in love with the person you are describing in the letter.”

As you start the exercise use this famous Marianne Williamson quote for motivation and as an affirmation:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Liberate yourself in 2009, and Give yourself an A, YOU earned it.