One of my favourite things about the New Year is getting a new planner. I’ve ordered many different workbooks over the years to guide me through my goal setting.

I love when they arrive in the mail and I can explore all the boxes to fill out. The ritual of looking back on the past years and reviewing my accomplishments and the hard lessons learned is my way of honouring the past year. I feel like I can truly let it go and focus ahead. The cycle of the calendar propels me to plan for the year ahead.

Consciously Create Your Future

Many years of my meditation practice involved filling journals with what I wanted for my life. I believe that caring for yourself means examining what you value in this life, what your goals are and where you will set your direction. If you don’t choose your direction, someone else will choose it for you!

Everyone is so busy these days, there’s so much to do. It reminds me of the Greek Myth of Sisyphus, the greedy and cruel King who was punished with the task of rolling a massive boulder to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back to the bottom for him to begin rolling it up again.

Sometimes work, no matter what you do, can feel like that. Another day rolling the boulder up the hill, only to start again the next day.

To break that cycle I registered for some Continuing Education in business development.  The course started with the question: Why do you do what you do? It is a very spiritual question. It applies to all areas of life. Why do I do what I do?

Because there’s the work (the boulder) that needs to be rolled, and then there’s the direction we’re rolling it. The course refers to this as your compass that points your direction.  Your compass shows you what your core principles are, and why you are doing what you do. It’s the direction of what you believe.

I’ve asked myself these questions before in different ways but I keep asking them to make sure I’m still heading in the right direction. Sometimes I need to change my route when I find myself straying from my core principles. Sometimes, I’ve changed my core principles of my business, especially when I’ve taken on too much and am headed too many directions.

One core principle I’ve held onto for 18 years of teaching yoga to kids is:

Go with the flow! Yoga should be enjoyable.

I want kids to think of yoga fondly. If a child does yoga, when they grow up, I want them to look back on the experience and think “I like yoga, I want to do it again.”

Why do You Enjoy Yoga? Why do You want Others to Join the Yoga Community?

When I dig deeper into the question of why I do what I do, I see it’s because yoga helped me so much, in so many ways it helps me be happier. In turn, I feel happy when I help others discover how good yoga feels.

There is another core principle there:

Helping Others Brings Happiness

So whether it is the new year or mid year, consider how focusing on your own compass can help you live your purpose and avoid rolling that boulder up the hill each day!  There may be times when you roll uphill, but you will push that boulder over the top and roll it forward rather than backward.