The transition from one year to the next is quite a special time. There’s this air of excitement and newness and often an energy of what might be possible in the upcoming year. Mixed in with that, there can also be some feelings of regret or even shame and guilt about what we didn’t accomplish the year before. That’s why the whole resolution thing is such a touchy subject. It’s great to have goals to work with but so many times, people set themselves up for failure and then they do something even worse – they start criticizing themselves. That voice of “you always start off well, but you never follow through” or “why even try, you’re just going to fail again” comes in loud and strong.

That’s why Tool #3 is such an important one. And this is: Compassion. The Compassion Mood Lady says:  Many of us have a lot of compassion for others, for our friends & loved ones, but not necessarily for ourselves. We often have a lot of judgment & resistance to those parts of ourselves that aren’t quite ‘good’ enough….When you offer yourself compassion, you stop using that [critical] voice. When you offer yourself compassion, you’re saying “Let’s look at this…Why is this showing up right now?”

So as the month comes to an end, you’re invited to look compassionately at where’ve you been – maybe way back last year and even in the first month (so far) of this year. How might you be more compassionate with yourself when it comes to your goals and what you’d like to achieve? And what might this allow for – what might be possible for you and in your life if you offer yourself this compassion?