Every morning, I start my day by writing the following in my journal:

My most important intention for today is to _____________________.

We can create an intention for an entire day, week, month, year, or maybe just for the next hour or before an activity. For example, I often set an intention before starting a yoga practice or new project.

One of the reasons we often feel uninspired, bored, or unmotivated is that we go about our day without really thinking about what we want to be doing. We’re not living intentionally.

One thing my clients often struggle with is sleep. It seems that relaxing our minds and bodies to get ready for sleep is quite a challenge.

Sleep difficulties aren’t surprising considering all the balls we’re juggling all day long. This is especially true as we get older and we’re possibly looking after children and/or parents, working, and trying to keep ourselves healthy.

For most of my life, I told myself a story that I wasn’t creative. I’m not sure how old I was when I started telling myself that story, but I was pretty young.

It wasn’t until I began my life coach training and got lots of peer coaching, that I realized that it was just a story and I could decide to change it.

We always have the choice to retell and rewrite our stories.

As a life and mindset coach, I have many clients in midlife and beyond, and I often hear the words “I’m too old” when they talk about following their dreams and creating a new life. I’ve also seen that very sentence in various social media posts many times and I’ve heard it from my friends and colleagues.

It’s not true. It really isn’t. What’s actually happening is that we’re afraid of stepping out of the comfortable life we’ve been living for years and living the life we were always meant to live. We’re afraid to step out of the social conventions that we’re used to.

Most of us are resistant to change and our brains will work hard to try and keep us safely where we are.

Sometimes that’s just fine and we should stay just where we are, sometimes we have no choice and change is thrust upon us, and sometimes it’s in our own best interest to build our cocoon as a caterpillar so we can emerge as the butterfly we were meant to be.

My coaching mentor, Martha Beck, in her book Finding Your Own North Star describes a map of change that she calls The Change Cycle. As a coach, I use this map to help my clients move forward and create their dreams.

When I ask my clients what they need help and support with during a coaching session, they usually report feeling stuck in an area of their life due to some form of stress or overwhelm. They’re simply thinking about too many things.

With practice, we can learn to settle our mind and feel calmer in our body. Whenever I’m feeling stressed or overwhelmed, I turn to mindful practices to help me refocus.

Self-confidence is defined as “a feeling of trust in one’s abilities, qualities, and judgements”. The more proficient you think you are in an area of your life, the more self-confidence you’ll have in yourself.

We aren’t born lacking confidence in ourselves and our abilities; it’s something we learn as we move through life and try more and more things. We’re social beings and begin to compare ourselves with others and much of our lack of self-confidence can be traced back to our past experiences and our concern about what others think. Our brains begin to develop defenses to keep us safe from getting hurt.

“I don’t have time to ___________” (whatever that thing you always say you want to do) is something we tell ourselves often.

It’s not true. You do have the time.

You have the same amount of time as everyone else.

It’s a matter of priority. You will always have time for the priorities in your life. You will make time for whatever means the most to you.

To many of us, the end of the old year and beginning of the new signifies a time of transition. It’s a time to think about the year that’s just past, and plan for what’s ahead. As a child, after Christmas I would have new things to add to my toy and book collections and I’d often pick that time off school to rearrange my room. I’d spend a lot of time daydreaming about what’s ahead.

I’ve also heard this time period referred to as a liminal space. I was curious, so I looked up the meaning of liminal space or liminal period and here’s what I discovered.

I love the metaphor of a bridge as we move forward in life, because I always feel like I’m leaving something I don’t need behind and going on into new adventures when I cross one. This wintery bridge in the evening lamplight in the picture above looks particularly enchanting, don’t you think?

The new year is either an opportunity to keep moving in the direction of your dreams or a chance for a fresh start filled with infinite possibilities.

Either way, with the right mindset, you win!