A perfect time of year to reflect on the past, present and future

I LOVE this time of Christmas, the big event is over but the New Year is yet to come; it’s the perfect time, I find, to reflect on the year, or years that have gone past.

I know that I’ve shared this quote many a time before, as it’s one of my favourites, but as Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”

I believe that it’s only when we reflect back that we can truly see how the dots in our life are connected, how the times that have not gone as we had expected have led on to other things and in many ways give us hope that there are just as many good things to come in the future, too.

This time of year we are always encouraged to make our New Year’s Resolutions, to set our goals, our aspirations for the year ahead and as time has gone by, and I’ve got older, I often wonder how useful this is? How do we know what goals to set? Surely it just sets us up for disappointment if we don’t reach them?

The way that I look at it is this. Imagine that you are going on a beautiful walk, you have a sense that there is something amazing ahead and it occurs to you to look in a particular direction. To your amazement you see the most beautiful monument in the distance and decide that this will be your destination, your goal if you like, so you start to make your way. As time goes by you lose sight of the monument, but you’ve decided to go in that direction, that was your decision.

So despite the fact it isn’t clear, despite the fact the road has become a little rocky underfoot, you keep on pursuing it. However, it occurs to you to look in a different direction and you are encouraged to see a beautiful woodland in the distance, the road there looks easy and clear, the sun is even shining over there! You ponder whether to change direction, but your head is telling you that you’ve made this decision and now you must stick with it, you want to go to the monument, but your gut is with wood. Unfortunately your head wins and you walk the difficult path, encountering brambles, rocks and boggy puddles.

Eventually you get to the monument, it’s throwing it down with rain, it’s in very poor repair and isn’t very nice at all. You wonder why you kept going.

Often it occurs to us to set a goal, and that is great, it sets us on our way, gets us going. But a goal to me is simply a thought, an idea, nothing more, it’s not set in stone. Often in life an opportunity comes along, something that we couldn’t have possibly thought of, and it’s at this time our goals require a little revision.

So this time of year for me is a time for thinking about what opportunities are in store and to remain open to all the possibilities that lay ahead, in the knowledge that it’s my journey and ultimately I get choose my own path.

■ Andrea Morrison is a Transformational Life Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Speaker and is author of The Feel Good Factor in 30 Days. You can find her at andreamorrison.co.uk