The Best Way Forward Is Back

Game on! 2020 is here. If you are at all like me, you’re carefully, deliberately pondering possible goals or intentions for yourself in this new year. Here’s a little secret that will pretty much guarantee extraordinary days ahead: the best way forward is back. Back to you.

For an amazing new year ahead, I recommend first rediscovering and resurrecting the forgotten you — your essence at the core of your being. Time to peel back the layers and find your center. Embrace this previous lost, or perhaps buried, version of yourself, and boom — future paths will fall powerfully into place. You’ll be on super firm footing. This is because returning home to ourselves always provides the best, most secure foundation for moving forward.

Think about it. If you try to leap ahead into fresh starts and new beginnings, all the while out of touch with your authentic self, things probably won’t go well. Consider for a moment the word transformation. Transformation means to rise beyond or soar above one’s form, into action. Trans. Form. Ation. It follows then that one might benefit from first knowing what form, or true self, one is seeking to expand upon.

Often, as we scramble through our days, we do not even realize when we are wearing a mask, or pretending to be that which we are not. We get so good at pretenses, or habitual ways of existing, that we can completely forget who we are underneath these layers. The false self begins to feel like the real self. We can glide along on the surface of our existence for a good long while this way, unaware. We might simply feel emotionally “off.” Despite this, too often we proceed to try and build our lives on this quicksand. We then fall head-first into ways of being and doing that are many steps removed from our true character, or from what is ideally going to serve us.

Goals and intentions most successfully manifest only if you are growing them from the place of alignment with your true self. Easy to say, yet how does one get there? How do we arrive at the most genuine, open version of ourselves? And what might it feel like when we land?

Acceptance and Appreciation

Accepting and appreciating yourself as you are now, at this very moment, is essential before trying to grow yourself further. So breathe; drop into the emotions that you are feeling right now. Dive deep. Practicing the art of radical self-awareness can help you acknowledge your present strengths, shortcomings, preferences, and ways of being that make up your beautiful, unique essence. This “you” deserves to be celebrated before being built upon.

We will be much more capable of moving forward in life if we can first see ourselves not from a deficiency model where we need to be “fixed,” but rather from a place of loving acceptance. I can’t say this strongly enough. Appreciate and accept who you are.

Like pulling an arrow in a bow back toward yourself before releasing it into flight, pull back gently into yourself for an instant. Know deep in your core that you have everything you need internally to have a great life — that you are special and unique simply because you exist. This awareness then positions you perfectly for any and all next steps on your flight path. There are really no limits to what is possible for you. Trust yourself with yourself. And then let that arrow fly.

Clearing Negative Beliefs 

You can’t build a strong house on a weak foundation. Start the new year right. No need to waste time striving toward new goals if you are still holding tight to beliefs about your brokenness. Return home to yourself and ponder for a hot minute where you go in your head at your worst moments. This is key step back on the way to moving forward. Negative or false beliefs about ourselves, conscious or subconscious, can haunt us and definitely run major interference when striving to grow further.

Any goal or intention is unlikely to manifest when the person desiring such is living from a place of feeling “not good enough,” “unworthy,” “invisible,” “unloveable,” or “a failure,” to name a few possibilities. Might as well not waste time on new strivings until these beliefs are identified and amended.The perfect launching pad for further growth is always from a position of standing in one’s worthiness. When we feel worthy, anything is possible!

Aligning With Your Truth

So, assuming you have arrived at a place of deep self-appreciation, and cleared away dysfunctional old negative stories and beliefs about yourself, now you are primed to align with your truth. It is so empowering to live from the heart of what really matters to you. It takes courage and bravery to trust in your inherently divine nature, and stand strong in your desires and beliefs. Imagine moving into this new year fiercely embracing the qualities and dreams that make you uniquely you, then building toward even greater expression of your full potential.

When we truly know and believe in ourselves, and align there, we grow exponentially in confidence, self-expression, determination, and lasting happiness. Standing in your truth — “I am who I am” — and honoring yourself there fuels the clarity you need for taking on new ventures, opportunities, and challenges. In other words, you are primed to go after new goals and intentions.

To me, knowing yourself includes experiencing yourself as enough — as wise and insightful, resilient and resourceful in having lived all you have lived up to this point. It means loving yourself unconditionally and without judgement.

From this place, there are really no limits to what you can go on to achieve. Moving forward into the new year will be all about growing an even more magnificent you, rather than moving forward with goals aimed at correcting for shortcomings or feelings of brokenness. We are much more likely to be successful in achieving our dreams if we come at them from a place of wholeness.

And so, my friends, the way forward is back. Reclaim your beautiful, brilliant self, and then step fully and radiantly into your days ahead! Possibilities are endless from this vantage point.

Love yourself completely, return to the root of your own soul. ~Rumi

This article was also published in The Brick Magazine.