The Secret to Successful New Year's Resolutions.

I suggested we do a big New Year Dream Session with my Irish fellow a few days ago. It will be fun I said.

Bless him for trusting me. (I do this for a job!!) So on a blustery Dublin afternoon we sat at the summit of Howth and dreamed up our dreams. Some were for us individually and some were for us as a couple.

You know what it is like when you get to the end of a year, about to start the next, you look back at your accomplishments, take stock of where you are at and maybe consider where you wanted to be. Some years have been a cracker and may have been amazing in how they turned out. And other years you may feel stuck, perhaps like the year before that, and the year before that.

The New Year is a great time to spark new and exciting beginnings. It’s a time to get clear about the things you really want to create and manifest into your life.

So block off an hour or so at some stage before the New Year to set your intentions and really look forward with anticipation some action in a forwards direction.

Here is how.

Step 1: Get Some Uninterrupted Time!

Make sure you have at 60 minutes time. If this is when everyone else has gone to bed, or if you have to get up 60 minutes earlier so be it. Maybe a quiet afternoon where you find you have space available. Or you may like to do this with your partner – sitting together in peaceful dreaming silence.

Declutter the space you wish to work in, switch off the phone, unplug and go old fashioned with a notebook and pen. Make a cup of tea or coffee (if it is the morning) or maybe something you like to drink if it is right before bed. Maybe you would like to sit at the beach, or by a river or in a place of nature overlooking a lovely view. Perhaps the car, in your favourite thinking spot.

The purpose of taking this time is to create space for yourself to relax and unwind and dream.

Step 2: Do Some Balanced Breathing/Meditate

Take 5-10 minutes to just be with yourself, allowing your mind some time to leave aside any worries, to be right here, right now. Find a guided mediation to listen to for a few minutes. Or spend 5 minutes just with the balanced breathing – a count of 6 on the in breath and 6 on the out breath, focusing on how that breath fills your lungs and then empties them. Feel yourself be calm and clear. Once the breathing is done, sit back a little further and look up towards the sky and start thinking. (Looking up as you recline back a little is physiologically important here – it is actually a ‘thing’).

Step 3: Start Writing!

Get your pen and paper and start writing. (No, don't use a laptop or ipad etc, use a pen and paper - it's a 'thing' too).

Use the headings:

'I Want to Be' and

'I Want to Do' and

'I Want to Have' - and let your imagination run wild in each section.

Don't filter or censor, just let yourself want what you want. There are no rules here so dream big! The bigger the better! Big Hairy Audacious Goals – BHAG for short! They are your goals and dreams, just for you to have – and it is up to you if you wish to share them!

Imagine how it would feel to do, be and have whatever it is you want and here is how....

Imagine you are in a movie as you are attaining your dream – what does that movie look like? What do you hear? What do you feel? What does your body feel like as you are playing this movie? Play with it like a game and have some fun!

Step 4: What Is Your Truth?

Yes, playing this ‘game’ is great fun but I'm sure you'll find that you don't actually want everything equally as much. There are going to be things on your be, do and have lists that are more important than the others.

So mark off the importance beside each item maybe put a star beside it if it's something you want right now and a circle if it can wait. Try and come up with just a couple of things for right now - these are your truths and your true desires! Not for others, just for you.

Step 5: Is This Dream A Good Idea? – Ecology Check

There is always something that has to give way in order to reach a great goal. Be it loss of privacy if you want to be famous, or rearrangement of time if you want to learn to fly a plane, maybe significant others don’t quite fit the picture if you want to start hosting cooking tours of other countries or loss of sleeping in time if you want to start regular mediation or exercise practice, there is always something to take into consideration. Often it is nothing that needs to be really worried about, and sometimes it is something that can be noted and worked out later through planning or discussion with others.

The important thing is acknowledging the changes within the system of living that you have.

Step 6: Start Making Magic!

Isn’t it great when things 'work out' the way you wanted but the reality is that things rarely work out unless you take action on it. (I am yet to find anybody who wanted to learn something and sat in their lounge expecting this to happen without doing anything).

This is the practical part of the dream.

Write out at least one action that you can plan or take, or something you can do consistently that will help move you in the direction you want to go. It doesn't need to be anything huge, even, say €20 a month into a savings account towards your dream trip. Maybe looking up people who can help you start, researching on the internet, find a teacher. This is all about taking action, one step at a time towards the life that you want.

Once you can dream it, you can see it and then become it. A bit of dreaming, imagination then action.

We finished our dreaming feeling quite excited about our life ahead, as individuals and as a couple.

Then craziness happened. Ideas started to really flow and flow, even once we had gotten home and for the following days. I had trouble getting to sleep for all of the new ideas that popped into my head and even more came in over the next few days ahead.

This process of creating was so much fun. At one stage we were both laughing our heads off as the dream developed even further and further. Yes, that apartment in Portugal suddenly had Vespa’s in the garage for us to use over there. A blue one and a lime green one. I certainly had to laugh out loud.

Over the following few days and weeks we both started to notice things around us that supported the dreams - a green vespa went past (!) and headlines in newspapers that were applicable jumped out at me. I heard things on the radio too. I realised that I was on track to noticing more and able to do more to achieve it.

All because we took time to wildly imagine and write it down.

Enjoy creating in this New Year Dreaming.

Enjoying life involves having things to look forward to. Anticipating an idea - be it a qualification or a holiday or a new vehicle or a personal accomplishment. Dreams and goals allow you to look forward and find ways to achieve it. But don't just stop at the dream, do something about it otherwise it is just an idea on a piece of paper. If you really want to push the GO button, I can help you consolidate your dream so that you really get going. That would make all the difference. We would find the innate creativity that you have going on in your head and the motivation of your body to get moving.

Dream big. No, don't do that. DREAM HUGE!! I dare you!!!!

Enjoy creating in this New Year Dreaming - and Happy New Year!.