Embracing the New – Rethinking for 2020

Every New Year beckons us to ask –
Have I explored all my possibilities?
Have I achieved completeness?
To answer these questions, we need to identify whatever is old and incomplete within us. What can we add or remove to attain completeness?

Completeness is experienced when we choose to be creative in life situations, instead of being reactive. We tend to be victims of our habitual behavioral patterns and give programmed responses to situations that keep recurring in our lives.

When we lead a reactive life based on our past conditioning, we cannot easily detect gradual and subtle changes happening in our lives. Hence, consciously re-thinking our past choices and their relevance in today’s context helps take stock of these changes. This should be practiced at regular intervals, at least at the end of the year.

How do we re-think? We can ask ourselves, “Why do we do whatever we do?” Some tasks can be reviewed every quarter; some, every six months and so on. We may be performing some tasks mechanically although our goals may have changed with time, thus rendering them unessential. We need to re-assess such activities and their contributing factors. Have they changed?

In a business, it could be the market situation: demand, competition, political environment or socio-economic factors. For an individual, it could be the relevance of our daily habits and choices.

Nature necessitates re-thinking. It helps us by providing hints, which if grasped properly propel us to take appropriate action. For example, if one is not physically fit or lacks dietary discipline, he will fall sick sooner or later. The illness is a hint from nature, indicating that he needs to start following an exercise regimen and modify his diet. He should decode this message and work on these hints to achieve a healthy life.

To really progress, the various facets of our life need to be worked upon simultaneously:
● Disciplining our mind and body to develop higher qualities.
● Opening up our intellect to higher values and flexibility.
● Attaining worldly success in our profession or career.
● Fostering, maintaining and improving the quality of our relationships.
● Managing a household effectively.
● Growing spiritually to realize and abide in our divine nature.

Every decision that we made in the past was apt, given our understanding and information available. If some decisions now appear to have been bad by virtue of hindsight; there is no point in feeling guilty or blaming anyone. However, one should definitely re-think in order to assess what went wrong, so as to learn valuable lessons.

Similarly, as our perceptions, values and understanding change, we must re-evaluate our aims and methods. We may have to re-assess the reasons why and how we do whatever we do. Perhaps the aims that we set for ourselves are no longer relevant given our redefined purpose.

For example, if an individual begins his career with the aim of setting up a good bank balance or owning a fine house, then a lucrative profession is an apt choice. However, with time, he may attain a higher understanding about life and consequently develop a higher goal; to positively influence the lives of many others beyond his own family.

Now, his earlier career ambitions may no longer inspire him. However, if he mechanically still continues with the same job, it may cause frustration. He needs to bring his career ambitions into alignment with his newfound vision.

There is always room for improvement, fine-tuning and re-orientation in whatever we do. We just need to pause frequently and re-think and give a chance for the New to unfold in our lives. And what better time than now, just before we ring in 2020!