Just a few hours more to kick off a new year... The past week has been to busy for much introspection. Tomorrow being New Year's Eve will be another busy day, but I'm sure we'll not be staying up for the midnight birth, but will greet the sun on New Year's Day.
Looking back, even though not in detail, I can see two things: I have not reached all the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of the year - but hey, that's being a prey to the perfectionist attitude that I am fighting anyway. In my accomplishments kitty, I have a whole jumble of things: sofa covers, an 80% complete novel outline, a completed mural, a Peter Pan costume that I made from scratch except for green leggings, more curtains, movie and book reviews, a whole lot of writing both on and off-screen. At the risk of sounding like Bridget Jones, I also lost about 6 kilos and gained back 5 of them and routine exercise is still a dream. But since I was noting down my exercise days, I have found that I did exercise properly for more than 60% of days in the year. Hey, that's better than nothing for a pathological non-starter!
Then there are lots of lovely memories to look back at this year, as well as some sad and stressful ones. As I look at my bookshelves, there are some wonderful additions that I made this year that I'm sure will be my companions for years to come. This is also the year that I decided to cull my personal library to only include books that I love reading and not display to impress other people (well, very few visitors peek into my bookshelf, but anyway! :-)).
But enough of looking back. Here is what I love the best about a new year!
New stationery!!! My DH will tell you that after books, my shopping vice is stationery. My favorite stationery shop is Premier at Ayurveda College Junction, but I don't care much about where my stationery comes from. But this year I had to hand it to Premier. My 5-year-old DayTimer planner has had no refill since the year 2006. I found a compatible refill this year!!! That's what you see on the right side of the picture. On the left is my standard diary and beneath it is one new product I discovered this year. It's probably standard stationery in offices, but I had no idea that this product existed. Now I'll have a whole month at a glance on my desk and I can also use it as a desk pad to keep my books on when I write. Ooooh, I simply love it! So altogether, lots and lots of blank pages to fill up in the new year!
One thing I'm going to do in the new year is to read again and share the gist of 12 books that help me in developing myself. I am still finalizing the list, but I know the one for January: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers. Yup, if you are like me and found the original 7 Habits abstruse and boring, it's time to read this version by Sean Covey. For daily inspiration, I'll be having Robin Sharma's book of the same name.
Tell me, do you have a good daily inspiration book that you look forward to reading? This year mine was 365 Gems for Holistic Living by Alan Cohen. Typically, it has been in my library since 2007, but I read it only this year (Hey, that's another accomplishment!) One of my favorite parts of the day is in the evening after lighting the lamp and chanting with my kiddos, when I read the day's lesson and meditate on it for a little while. I can tell you, the book really helped me a lot this year.
Have you thought about what you are gonna do in the new year? Tell me about it!
Happy New Year!!!!
Some of the things you wrote were like echoes off my mind !!! As always , a pleasure to read your post... wish you a very very Happy New Year. And may you find fun and fulfillment.Looking forward to a lot of new posts from you ...
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