Appreciate the Past for a Great New Start

This year is almost over

I hope you’re all doing well in this limbo between the holidays. Christmas is over and now we’re waiting for New Year’s Eve to come along.

More food, more alcohol and hopefully fireworks.

As you look back on the old year, it surely inspires you for the year to come. Some might even go as far as making some serious New Year’s resolutions.

So you think about things that went great this year and that you’d like to continue.
Coupled with things that were not so great but made you stronger – or showed you that this kind of situation has to stop now.

Make a list of good memories

Instead of getting stuck in negative memories, list all the things you appreciated this year. You will be surprised by how long this list will get.

Once you start looking for positive memories, you will think of another, and another, and yet another.

It works like a snowball. You start with a tiny ball, and as you roll it in the snow, it effortlessly gets bigger and bigger.

So get a pen and paper and start thinking. It wasn’t all bad, even if you officially had a crappy year.

Write down everything that comes to mind that made you happy.
Micro-moments of joy that seem unimportant compared to everything else that happened.

I wrote a list of appreciation once, which initially felt a bit weird. Ideas don’t just flow right away.
But once you find 2 or 3 things, your mind connects with other things that fall into the same category, and you get lots of inspiration.

Learning Ninja’s goal is always to help you feel good or better.

Don’t know where to start?

Let’s see some examples:

• Something nice someone said to you or about you
• Running into someone you hadn’t seen for a long time
• Getting touched or a hugged
• That hilarious meme or joke
• The stunning view
• The touching movie or book
• The amazing song
• The unexpected refund
• The awesome food you tried
• That inspiring conversation with a stranger
• The friendly cab or Uber driver
• The test or assignment that went much better than expected
• That time you laughed your ass off
• …

Of course, you can also write down the amazing big things that happened over the course of the year.

The list above is just an example of little things we might have forgotten because we’re so busy and exhausted most of the time.

We tend to forget all the nice things that happened to us.

So a good list of personal memories will put you in just the right mood for a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a fantastic new year.

Changing years resets the clock and lets us start fresh. Of course, we can always start over at any time.

The New Year simply seems a bit more official. So put your list together and try to feel the joy of these past moments.

What did you appreciate most this year? Which memory do you like best?

Have a great time while the new year is loading.

Regards,

Improve yourself. Improve your life!

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