Now is the time to re-calibrate

Now is the time to re-calibrate … It’s the beginning of a new year. And the beginning of a new decade. Now, more than any other time, it is key for us to throw out our calcified mindsets and outdated habits. We need to let go of the old and make room for the new. It’s time for fresh energy, new ideas and creating the space for growth.

Every new decade dictates a new fashion style. It’s almost ritualistic. Yet, so many of us find it difficult to be quite so clear cut, focused and ready for change in the rest of our lives. We wouldn’t dream of piling 70’s fashion, on top of 80s styles, fashion disasters of the noughties and fashion winners of the 2010s as we step out into the 2020 era. Not unless we were particularly skilled at fusion dressing and mainlining a hotchpotch fashion niche. Visualise the messy – and slightly deranged look – this would create. Then, visualise the equivalent mess of layers of outdated and stale thoughts in your mind, stifling the seeds of creativity and fresh insights.

All of us, whether subconsciously or with a sharp eye for fashion, update our ‘look’ and style in some form as we navigate through the decades. So, why can’t we be more slick and skilled at this when it comes to shaping up for new beginnings at the start of a new decade?

It’s high time for us all to re-calibrate! Of course, we can keep the ‘classics’ … our core personality, good habits and polished skill sets … but, we need to plough over the soil of our mind to make sure that our newly planted seeds of new ideas can germinate with ease and alacrity. And, critically, we need to ‘consciously uncouple’ (to use a phrase coined in the 2010’s, most famously by Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin on announcing their separation!) from our fixed mindsets, limited beliefs, bad habits, stuck patterns and friendships and relationships that are way past their sell-by date. Just as we can happily discard fusty and outdated fashion and move onto the new, so we need to do this with ourselves. Not least because by doing this, we free ourselves up for fresh goals and challenges and allow ourselves to enjoy being present on our journey across the next decade of our lives.

Now is the time to re-calibrate …

So how can we stop and take the time to recalibrate so that we can move forward in our lives, refreshed, reenergised and all set to make the most of the next decade? Clearly, there are many ways of doing this and it’s an individualised and personal choice for all of us … but here are some suggestions.

1. REVIEW: Take the time to review the last two decades. What worked? What didn’t work? Where did you hold yourself back? How did you limit yourself and suppress your true potential? What did you do well? What could you have improved on? What patterns of behaviour and thought are apparent? What are your core skills and unique pockets of brilliance? What could you improve upon with consistency and discipline? Note your answers down in a journal.
2. DISTIL: Now, take the time to review what you have written in your journal based on your review process. Allow these thoughts to filter and percolate around your mind. Lean in to the sensations in your body and sense what resonates and where you have visceral responses, positive or negative. Then, intuitively draw up a shortlist of 5 areas of behaviour that you know you have outgrown or need to change and 5 areas of behaviour or skill sets that you would like to give focus to in the next decade. Review and then distil again. Make sure you resonate with and are at peace with your final set of choices. Embed the shortlist in your mind and layer it into your subconscious.
3. LET GO: Consciously let go of the past and of the patterns of behaviour on your shortlist that you recognised needed to go or be changed. Let it all go and really commit to move on, open up and let the light shine in. Be fully cognisant of all that you are letting go and respectfully commit to that process.
4. RETHINK: Say to yourself that, that was then and that this is now. You are no longer the person of the last one or two decades. You are now set to create fresh imprints on life and embrace a whole set of new goals. Determine what goals you would like to embrace in the coming decade. Embrace the feeling of excitement, anticipation and liberation that this brings alongside any concurrent seeds of fear. Recognise that you have loosened the bonds and ties you hold with old patterns and old ideas of the ‘old you’. Get ready to become the new you. Acknowledge what you have let go of and what you intend to embrace.
5. RE-ENERGISE: Finally, take some time to sit with what you have thought through, let go of and determined to embrace. Note how you feel about this in your journal. Note also how you feel, in particular, about the exciting new goals and challenges you have set yourself. Also, make sure to note how you intend to check yourself whenever old patterns return or reemerge … and how you will remain mindful of this. Feel the old patterns falling apart and lean into the commitment to the new. Seize the energy that this creates for you as it opens up fresh spaces in many areas where you have been stuck. Embrace the fresh energy. Feel yourself become re-energised and set for a new direction. Allow this sense of energy and excitement to oxygenate your thinking, body and soul.You’re all set!

Now is the time to re-calibrate …

If you work through these five simple steps and commit to new beginnings and a resolve to let go of all that does not serve you, you will be well on your way to re-calibrating your life. And well on your way to ‘consciously coupling’ with new energies, insights and possibilities that will go much further in helping you realise your truest potential in the decade to come.