New Year’s Resolutions Gone West?

It’s well into January as I write this. The weather today is dull, cold and drizzly. This is the kind of winter day when it’s easy to lose your sense of purpose. One where the resolutions and goals of the emerging year can drift away from you. It seems as though there are weeks of winter left ahead of us.

That’s when the gremlins bite.  They may be showing up as procrastination – the I’ll do it tomorrow feeling. They might be creating guilt and whispering into your ear I told you, you’ll never be fit, what’s the point in trying. Or yours could be telling you that it’s no point starting whatever you need to do because you won’t be able to get it perfect.

Gremlin thoughts show up in lots of disguises and they’re skilled at finding ways to give you a hard time. Especially so in the dark winter months.

Learning to manage your gremlins better means

• noticing when it’s a gremlin voice speaking. Sometimes it’s hard to work that out, because you’ve been listening to it for so long it sounds like the truth.
• understanding a bit about what it’s trying to help you to do. Mainly they want to keep you safe, stop you taking  risks, looking foolish or failing in some way.
• experimenting with different ways of thinking and behaving to change what’s happening. In his book S.U.M.O. (Shut Up and Move On) Paul McGee uses the beautiful little equation E + R = O. This stands for Event + Response = Outcome. We’re often not in control of the events that happen to us in our lives. Yet we can be in control of our response, and so change the outcome that we get. Learning to manage your gremlins is one way of changing the response – it gives you CHOICE.

If you want to get to know yours a bit better and learn some tricks and tools to keep you in the driving seat of your life have a look at the details of my Gremlin workshop on Saturday 28th January in Leeds.

If you can’t get to that check out the series of short videos I created last year – you can access the first one here.

Whatever your gremlins are saying to you – it’s unlikely to be true! Stay curious about them and be compassionate towards yourself. Both these things will help you to stay out of judgement and guilt.

And enjoy the early signs of spring creeping towards us.

Tilla

 

What’s your word for the year?

We’re almost into the second week of the year, and before we know it the seasons will be turning faster than we want them to.

So, before the new year becomes too old I’m here to ask you What is your word for the year?

This is a word that creates an overarching theme or purpose for you. One that you can cling to when times get tough. That will create energy and aliveness in your day when you think of it. One that takes you across the bridge into the future you want to create.

It might be one of your values, like INTIMACY or TRUTH.

It might be something that has powerful momentum like FORWARD or WATERFALL.

It may be a word that will keep you grounded and calm in troubled times, like SERENITY or SOLITUDE.

Whatever word you choose, let it be a BIG word. Not necessarily a long one, yet one that has space for expansion, for your dreams, for the person you are becoming.

So that, at the end of 2012, you can look back and know that you chose a word that brought more life to your living.

Mine is JOY

 

Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New

A cycle of completion and creation

Fed up with New Year resolutions? Want to do something different this year that’s more likely to get you where you want to go?

Spend Saturday 14^th January sending a searchlight into the next 12 months and creating goals that will make your heart sing.

In this one day workshop you’ll

• Spend time reviewing the year of 2011 capturing the oops times, your wins, your self-betrayals and the aha moments.
• Recognise the personal qualities and values that most supported and enabled you during the year.
• Look forward a whole year to what you will have created in your life by January 2013.
• Create some powerful and compelling goals that will move you towards that moment and know the first steps you intend to take to make your goals a reality.

When? Saturday 14^th January 9.30-4.30

Where? Methodist Centre, Town Street, Chapel Allerton, Leeds

How much? £65, including lunch. Pay before 2^nd Jan and it’s £55

How do I book? Call me on 07740 465 660 or 0113 217 5680 or drop me a line at tillabrookcoaching@ntlworld.com

 

Byron Katie

I’ve just written a new post about Byron Katie and The Work for the Chapel Allerton About My Area site.

It’s the time of year when many are approaching the season of goodwill with some trepidation. So many family memories get stirred up, so much expectation is around, so many opportunities to mis-communicate with those we love.

Byron Katie shows us all how to understand the impact of our thoughts and prevent them ruining our lives. If you’ve been on the round and round hamster wheel of replaying something that happens with your mum, sister, best friend, great aunty etc then you’ll know what this feels like.

If you fancy a calmer, more loving and less stressful Christmas and New Year then have a look at my post here and take a look at Byron Katie’s amazing techniques here on The Work.