A New Year, A New Decade…The Same Old You

Happy New Year and Happy 2020! I am sure you and I are asking the same question…can you believe it; it’s 2020? Not only are we so fortunate to have crossed over into a new year, we have also entered another decade. And yes, time surely does fly! Because you have come to recognize how fast time flies, it’s imperative as you begin 2020, for you to also to begin to look at the love, the lessons, and your life experiences, positive and negative, that were gathered in 2019. It’s important to not only look at them, but for you to decide the applicability of them for your forward movement in 2020.

You have heard me state on many occasions that I don’t believe that people change. However, I do believe that people grow, as a result of gaining awareness, insight, and understanding. They then can change their mindset, their attitude, and their behaviors.  With each year that you are blessed to live through, you should be able to assess and take stock of your newfound awareness about yourself, your relationships with others, and life in general. You should also be able to assess and share the insights that you have gained about yourself, your relationships, and your life in general. And finally, at the end of each year that you survive and at the beginning of each New Year that you are blessed to enter, you should have gained a measure of understanding about yourself, your relationships with others, along with a greater understanding about life in general. Again, what do you plan to do with the awareness, insight, and understanding that you have gained in 2019? How will you apply all of this powerful information that you have gained, not only to the benefit of self, but also, in order for you to benefit others? You see, one of the greatest things you should learn each and every year is that life is not all about YOU!

Often times, there seems to be no real understanding about life. I had two surrogate godmothers, Queen Mother Corine and Mother Jones, who have both transitioned while in their eighties. Based on conversations with them, you learn a lot in life, but you never gain full understanding of life. However, it is important that you learn and grow, in order for you to not keep making the same mistakes year after year. According to Queen Mother Corine and Mother Jones, you will keep falling, faltering, and failing, with little or no reprieve, until you gain the awareness, insight, and understanding necessary for you to move to your next life realm each year. If not, you’ll continue to experience a new year, a new decade, with the same old you!

However, any level of understanding that you are able to gather is imperative to your continued levels of life growth. It’s one thing to be able to talk about the awareness, insight, and understanding that you receive from one year to the next. The question is, what are your plans to implement what you learned from the past into the present, in preparation for the future? Because God has blessed you to enter into a new year, you should have a new attitude, a new perspective on life, new goals, new life directions, new relationships, and a new determination!   

Your journey for a new you doesn’t mean that you get rid of you, it’s all about you taking a panoramic view of yourself in 2020. It’s you engaging yourself in a weeding process. Who and what are the people, situations, circumstances, perspectives, locations, and relationships that strangled your growth in the past year and the past decade? It’s time for you to weed them out! Weeds do not aid in your growth, they negatively overtake your growth, sometimes to the point where you don’t exist any more. Get rid of these people, situations, circumstances, perspectives, locations, relationships, and other infiltrators! If they were not assets in 2019, they sure as hell will not be assets in 2020! Stop fooling yourself and wasting your time and your life; you are worth much more than you give yourself credit!

You can make all of the New Year’s resolutions you would like, but as long as you have the same old negative people, the same old negative situations, and the same old negative circumstances and conditions in your life, you will get the same old negative results in 2020, that you experienced in 2019. But, even though your life might not have been as ‘perfect’ as you would like in 2019 or during the past decade, I am sure that you were blessed in many ways. Instead of wallowing in what wasn’t and what didn’t in 2019, take hold of what was positive and expand upon the positive people, positive situations, and the positive circumstances you experienced in 2019, and take them into 2020.

You are much farther along than you think! Just close the doors of negativity, allowing the doors of positivity to open in your life. You won’t flourish by having two doors open that are going in opposite directions. It’s a new year, a new decade! You are endowed with newness within and throughout your being. Hold your head up, look up, speak up, and stand up, affirming your success, affirming your life as a beacon of light for you and for others. In 2020, you are a force with which to be reckoned! 

If you are in need of a little nudging to help you move forward in this New Year and new decade, with a new you, here are some suggestions to help you along the way:

1. Sit with yourself, with pen and paper. Make a list of the negative people, situations, circumstances and experiences you encountered in 2019.

2.  Sit with yourself, with pen and paper. Make a list of the positive people, situations, circumstances and experiences you encountered in 2019.

3. Make a conscious decision to weed out the negative people, situations, circumstances and experiences you encountered in 2019. Put a timeframe on each, but it should not be months, a half year, three quarters of a year, or a full year. LET THEM GO!!!

4.   Take your positive list and make realistic plans on as to how you believe you can and will benefit from those positive people, situations, circumstances and experiences you encountered in 2019 into 2020.

5.  Take your positive list and make realistic plans on how you will transfer those positive people, situations, circumstances and experiences you encountered in 2019 into 2020. You will also set timeframes and action steps for you to be able to transfer these positive attributes into 2020.

6.  Write positive affirmations that you will post around your home and your office. They should start with, ‘I can,’ ‘I will,’ ‘I am.’

7.  Decide on an accountability partner whom you trust immensely to have your best interest at heart and decide that the two of you will talk either in person or by telephone at least twice a week to keep you on track. Texting is not allowed!!

8.  You will also need a spiritual connection to ensure that you not only take the new you into the New Year, but also into the new decade. Decide how you will engage spiritually on a daily basis, in order to keep yourself focused, grounded, encouraged, and determined to keep moving forward. You can use prayer, positive readings, relaxation techniques, yoga, chants, etc.

9.  Finally, if you are still struggling with letting go of 2019, engaging in the weeding out process, and taking a new you into 2020, get with a mental health professional.

You are well on your way and prepared for your success in 2020. How you end each old year is predicated on how you start each New Year! This is your time to start 2020 anew. You will not be absolved from trials, tribulations, and tragedies, but you will be strong enough to face them. After all, you have a new attitude, new perspectives, new behaviors, and an overall new outlook on life for the New Year 2020! Get ready, get ready!

©2020; J. Morley Productions, Inc.; P.O. Box 1745; Decatur, GA 30031; (770) 808-6570; www.doctorjoyce.com