How Will You Design Your Next Decade?

“New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” —Alex Morritt

There’s is nothing more terrifying than freedom; and the knowledge that we have the power to create ourlife, our dreams. Our default approach to life apears to be for most of us, myself included, that we can achieve some of our dreams, but not all.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul…” —Gilbert K. Chesterton

We tend to have a piecemeal approach and focus on discrete plans, goals or ideas without contemplating the big picture of our lives,

But here we are on the verge of a new decade so why not dream big?

My grandaughter turned 10 recently and I thought of those past ten years, the changes in our respective lives and souls. Some changes were dramatic, others evolutionary; some were wrapped up as pleasant surprises, others disappointing like deflated balloons.

Overall, I have to admit, I’ve learnt to transform the negatives into a broader understanding of myself, life and people. Some of these unwanted events proved to be the most enriching.

So to design my next decade I will spend a fair amount of time reflecting, evaluating reviewing the past. But then there’s life itself and the fresh new energies and opportunities which will start to flow through and to all of us starting in just a few days. Can we really anticipate the sudden and completely unknown? No, but we now know that we live in volatile and insecure times and any attempts to control life will be futile. We can only choose to respond to the changes and challenges of modern life from the values by which we have to chosen to live our life.

“ Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.” –Salvador Dali

I recently read Carolyn Myss’s latest blog post (www.myss.com) in which she poses 7 questions for reflection on the new year. Question 3 was thought provoking

What do you want to contribute to your community to make it a better place?

This is my last house sit and within weeks I will be looking to settle in a new community. Thinking of all the possibilities, not just to do but to be, in a community, is exciting.

But it was question four which was really intriguing

How do you want to be different by the end of the year? (Decade)

There are things I would like to leave behind, some are internal, others external, and others I’d lïke to take up but such a question is best served by allowing it to permeate consciousness before responding- and that could take some time.

So how will you design the next 10 years of your life?

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.” –Paul Rand

I recently read Carolyn Myss’s latest blog post (www.myss.com) in which she poses 7 questions for reflection on the new year. Question 3 was thought provoking

What do you want to contribute to your community to make it a better place?

This is my last house sit and within weeks I will be looking to settle in a new community. Thinking of all the possibilities, not just to do but to be, in a community, is exciting.

But it was question four which was really intriguing

How do you want to be different by the end of the year? (Decade)

There are things I would like to leave behind, some are internal, others external, and others I’d lïke to take up but such a question is best served by allowing it to permeate consciousness before responding- and that could take some time.

So how will you design the next 10 years of your life?

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.” –Paul Rand

I recently read Carolyn Myss’s latest blog post (www.myss.com) in which she pises 7 questions for reflection on the new year. One that I was particularly drawn to was What do you want to contribute to your community to make it a better place?

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.” –Paul Rand

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.” —Alfred Lord Tennyson