Let Inspiration Find You This New Year

This week we celebrated Christmas at our house. It was great! We enjoyed several house guests and lots of good food, attended a Christmas Eve service with family and dear friends at a neighborhood church, and showered our almost-four-year-old with lots and lots of new toys. It was wonderful, we're tired, and today I spent a few hours putting away all the Christmas decorations for another year.

There is something about this week every year that really gets me going. I confess that I begin getting a little unmotivated around Thanksgiving and it goes downhill from there. By the week of Christmas I am usually pretty absent-minded and just trying to get everything finished before THE DEADLINE: Christmas Day. It struck me the other day that Christmas is somewhat like planning a wedding, but instead of once in a lifetime it occurs once a year! We shop, send cards, bake (yes, I did much more of that this year and took goodies to neighbors, etc.), shop some more, sneak around so the surprise won't be ruined, assemble family and friends that we may not see any other time and put on our best faces! And much like a wedding, once the big day is over, it's all over! You then wonder why you worked so hard and stressed so much for such a short event!

But guess what? Next year most of us will do it all over again. And for me, this is the exact week that magic happens. I have a few days to ponder the new year and set goals and dream big. Most years, this is the exact time - that time in between two big holidays - that big ideas arise and the possibilities seem endless. The rush of holidays is over and the old energy starts to come back.

As you make big (or small, or simply new) plans for the coming year, I encourage you to take this next week to see what comes to you. Instead of forcing ideas, wait for them. When you wake up the next few mornings, spend the first five minutes of the day in prayer or meditation, asking for inspiration and focusing on positive possibilities. Be thankful for the new day and begin it with expectation. If you're facing big decisions about life or career in 2008, use this time to see what comes to you before jumping into anything.

Take this next week to restore your energy, practice gratitude, think positively and wait expectantly. If you're open and ready, the inspiration will come!