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A new year! All freshly minted and taking shape as we slough off the Xmas excess and focus on another exciting 12 months of car chases, exotic locations and devilsh villains.

Ok, well maybe life isn’t exactly like a Bond film and that’s probably no bad thing. Like any job I’m sure that saving the world once a month must be a bit repetitive! There’s only so many times you can escape a shark tank, or a mountain top lair, before you start to wonder if there is more to life…

So, like a bored Bond, if you’re pondering how to frame your thoughts and feelings for a super successful 2018 I offer you the joy of affirmations. These are true statements that help to build confidence. The trick with them is just to read them through and let our intuition choose the one(s) that resonate with us, or which make us smile. 

Years ago a dear friend gave me this one:

Instead of staying stuck you can get help!

I carried it in my wallet, scribbled on a scrap of paper, and one day I was stuck. A project had got bogged down and I felt powerless to solve it. Checking my wallet for some lunch money I accidentally pulled out a bunch of useless wallet-things and it fell out. The words made me smile and I took action and sent out a distress tweet asking for help …and within a couple of hours I’d sorted the issue. All thanks to a little affirmation. 

Here are a few more of my favourites. Which one makes you smile the most?

You can get help 

You can find your voice 

You are always important

Your words are important

You can find out the facts

You can make your own decisions 

You can be ambitous and take risks

Always be important to yourself

People will support you when you find your words

You can get your needs met

You can take time to think

You can pause and sort the truth from the transference

You can plan your success

You can work less and live more

You can ask for what you need

You are loved when you are noisy and when you are quiet

You can make your business what you want it to be

You can be proud of yourself 

You can be proud of your brand

…A lovely list and you’re free to add your own. Transference is when we see someone else and react accordingly, instead of actually seeing the person who is infront of us and reacting to them. Think of how a grumpy customer might remind us of a stern school teacher …we need to see the customer and acknowledge them and not retreat like we did at school.

And if you’d like more affirmations then have a look at www.richardmaun.com where you will find a free download called Affirmations for Organisations. Help yourself!

Happy being you this week!

Next week: Sensitivity Analysis Is Fun!

The last day of the year is here and depending where you are in the world and when you read this, may already be gone.

The New Year is a time of celebration and sorrow. We anticipate the coming Spring and the adventures we are yet to have. We miss those who have left us and feel sad at the passing of time.

And we can be important to ourselves and take a moment just for us, away from the popping corks and the wistful merriment.

We can find one thing to take from the old year and carry into the new.

Every week I sit down and write this blog and send it out into the world. It is a labour of love and it takes about 25,000 words to make one blog-year.

I willingly share my skills and stories freely with the world and see where they take me.

This year the blog has taken me to Scotland, Australia and the USA, thanks to the magic of Skype. It has taken me around the internet on a sea of words and tweets and likes. I have made new friends and laughed and learned. 

When I add all these things together I am reminded that we have to make things happen for ourselves. If we put in some effort, whatever that means to us, then we will get somewhere.

That somewhere is likely to be a good place, even though it may not be the exact somewhere we first had in mind.

Starting a new year is like having an open bus ticket with no return booked. We can use it to travel in our lives and to meet new people, visit new places and have new experiences. We can live and strive and thrive.

So, after 25,000 words what I’m taking from the old year and into the new is this:

If we make an effort good things will happen.

And maybe we don’t know what the good things will be, we just have to trust that the world loves us and will deliver richness in due course.

What are you taking from the old year into the new?

Have a peaceful and successful 2018, wherever your bus ticket takes you!

Next week: Affirmations For All