Keys To Rewarding Year

One of the keys to a great year ahead is being at peace with yourself and others. When you are able to accept yourself the way you are, and the way God loves and accepts you, you'll find self-acceptance and you won’t feel insecure, so imperfect or incapable. That doesn’t negate the need to change but by learning to accept yourself you will take your life to a higher level. Besides a strong increase in your self-confidence, you will also save time and energy you can spend on other valuable things. 

Self-acceptance is not an easy nor a very fast process, but you can start with the steps described below to see some results.

Accept in 2013 that you will make mistakes

Everybody makes mistakes and everybody should make mistakes. Not doing everything perfectly is an important part of life. Without making mistakes you are not able to learn.
Actually, talking about ‘mistakes’ doesn’t help you very much. You can simply substitute the word ‘mistakes’ by ‘results’. Everything you will do will lead to results. Results are neither good nor bad, but depending on the goal you can label them as either desirable or non-desirable.
Are you getting results which are non-desirable? Then you know you should approach your goal in a different way.
Making a mistake is not a judgment about who you are and what you can do. It is only a non-desirable result from your actions.  You can and should learn from this. Because he who can interpret results can adapt his behavior in the future.
So don’t be scared to make mistakes and don’t let it affect you too much. Learn of your mistakes and carry on with your life.

Accept you can’t change the past

Your past is forgiven. Things that have happened can’t be changed anymore. You can’t change the past. What is, is. Period.
Therefore, don’t be too worried about everything that has happened. Look into the future and accept your life the way it has ran it course so far.
Understand that your past has formed you to become who you are now, where you are now and what you are doing now. The future is wide open. Do you want to let a troublesome past behind you? If so, choose a different path in 2013.

Accept the opinion of others

Yes other people will always have an opinion about you. Try not to see this as problematic. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and their own judgment about something. Know that other people will never fully know you. They don’t know your complete story, so any judgment whatsoever has no basis.
This doesn’t mean that this can’t hurt. It’s an art to make the positive voice within stronger than the negative voices without. Don’t let others humiliate you. You know that you are an amazing person created in God’s image.
You don’t have to ignore other opinions, but you can value them objectively and decide for yourself whether to do something with it in your life or not.
Other people aren’t always right, so don’t just take what they say as the truth. Especially when this has a negative impact on your self-image.

Accept your own responsibility

You and I are responsible for everything we think, everything we say and everything we do. You are also (partly) responsible for the results of your thoughts, words and actions. On top of that, you are responsible for noticing the connection between your actions and their results.
What does this mean? It means that you are responsible for your own happiness. When you want to be completely happy you should do this yourself. Nobody will stop by to make you happy, no matter how much you hope for this to happen.
When you feel bad and you don’t tell anybody about it, there will be nobody to call you to check how you are doing. You determine a large part of your own life, so take your responsibility and accept that you have to take action yourself if you want to feel happy.

This new year can be a great one if you move forward and don’t stay stuck in a past of guilt and condemnation.