Are you scared of what’s behind you?

Another new year is nearly complete, and with it, the soft light of “next year can be even better than this, darling” is shining upon you, coaxing you forward.

Even among the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, you might already be scribbling resolutions on the backs of napkins and receipts, sprinkling organizing bins and binders into your holiday shopping cart, planning retreats with yourself, and vowing to become more of something or to do less of something else in 2019.

And I love the idea of looking forward. But let’s also not forget to reflect on the year that we just had. As the saying goes, “ “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

How did 2018 brim with possibility for you? Like hot coffee on a cold morning, we drink in the elixir of a fresh beginning. It’s positively addictive, that chance for a do-over, for an upgrade to Me 2.0.

It’s exciting…and exhilarating…and uplifting…all until it isn’t.

What did you promise yourself you would accomplish this year? And where are you now with those promises?

Did the darkness of doubt descend quickly on your newly birthed plans to whisper:

You can’t.
Why you?
Why now?
Who do you think you are?
It’s selfish.
It’s unrealistic.
You’re too busy.
You’re too lazy.
You’re not smart enough.
You don’t have the resources.
What will they think?

Whether we’re making resolutions…or setting goals…or changing careers…or writing a life plan…the voice shows up. And it is NOT on our side.

Instead of casting the soft light of dawn, it shines a harsh spotlight on our past failures, unmasks our vulnerabilities, and hands a bullhorn to our inner critic. This voice makes us shrink back in shame. We step backward, into the darkness of old habits, into well-worn paths, into the person we’ve been instead of the one we can become.

But what if instead of continuing to cover your ears and step backward, you decided to answer the voice and step forward?

There’s no one stopping you but you.

You have answers to these questions. You are allowed to counter these statements when the voice hurls them in your direction, to cancel them out with the truth.

You can’t.
Why you?
Why now?
Who do you think you are?
It’s selfish.
It’s unrealistic.
You’re too busy.
You’re too lazy.
You’re not smart enough.
You don’t have the resources.
What will they think?

That voice? It’s just fear talking. It’s your worst self…trying desperately to stay alive, using doubt and shame as its weapons of self preservation.

But you…you are so much bigger than that voice.

So this time, when you scribble out your fledgling dream, hatch your plan, or glimpse your vision…this time when you are ready to begin, and the voice shows up, don’t let it get the last word.

Drive the dark of doubt away for good, and 2019 will be the year you conquer anything standing in your way.