Thought for today:

The end of the year is the perfect time to focus on where we’ve been and where we want to be. The destination is the journey.  It’s a more pleasant journey when we know where we want to go.

A member shares:

“When the year begins, it helps me to take an inventory on where I’ve been and where I’m heading.  I can learn from the year passed, and re-reinvigorate my visions for the new one.”

“Second, I try to de-clutter.  It helps me create new space that foster new attitudes.  I try to create a meditative space.  I give to a non-profit organization from my abundance.  I give to those in need, like they do on Boxing Day in England and Wren day in Ireland. If I can get a receipt, that will usually help as a tax deduction.  I toss things that are of no real value.  I sell other stuff on eBay or elsewhere if it is worth something.

“Third, I try setting resolutions for the recurring habits in the year ahead.  Principles like ‘No new monthly spending without other equivalent reductions in spending’ or ‘cardio excessive for a half hour five times a week.’

“Fourth, I also set visions of one-time items like purchasing a new phone or computer, and I set up a spending plan for these things. In the past, I’ve set a deadline for taking a certification exam at work, and I’ve ridden in bike marathons as a vision.”

Setting goals:

There are many techniques for managing our goals.  One way is to use the S.M.A.R.T. goal method.  However we manage our plans, it helps to be clear on where we’ve been, what we want to leave behind, what we want to start doing, and where we want to be.

Ask:

“Do I know where I’m heading?”

Meditation for today:

Most of the time a plane spends in the air it is veering slightly off course.  The answer is simply to constantly “course-correct”, regularly steering back on course.  Life can be thought of as lived in a series of course-corrective decisions.

Affirmation for today:

“I will take a 10,000 foot view of my life today, and seek wisdom to know what I want to do next.”

Recommended reading:  

See our Fourth Step Template which helps us to take a fearless moral inventory.

Some members, with the help of their Pressure Relief Group, take a moratorium from debt payments in order to get their spending under control.  See this Debt Moratorium sample letter to creditors for one example.

For a detailed analysis of all the Twelve Steps, read A.A.’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Is seasonal depression a problem?

The Feel Bright Light Portable Light Therapy is a visor that shines 10,000 lumens of blue/green light clinically designed to improve brain chemistry.   Gazing into the light once a minute for twenty minutes helps restore serotonin to the brain to help mood disorders.  Especially helpful during the short winter days.  

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