Hi, I hope you enjoyed a safe and happy holiday season. It has been a hot, wet start to the year. As we live close to the beach, we have been very grateful for the cool sea breezes that rescue us from overheating!

Good friends of ours are building a new house on the site of an old house over the coming months. They will have a stunning view, nestled into a hill, overlooking the south end of the beach at Currumbin and nearby parkland. After all the many months of planning, detailed discussions with their architect, builder and the local Council, the foundations have been laid down.
Before they could lay the foundations, they had to demolish the old house and clean up the left over rubble. I imagined that would be a simple, straight forward matter. Rip the insides out, reuse or recycle anything of value, then start at the top and work your way down. However, the 'down' part was not so simple. Since the old house was built on a slope with some pretty hefty slabs of concrete laid out in a mish mash of design and over various time frames - it was going to be an expensive and complex exercise. Not only that, they had some serious digging to do and the slope of the hill needed to be cut into to accommodate the new design.
When we came by to have a peek just before Christmas, we could hardly recognize the worksite. The drainage was extensive and thorough and we could see the basic shape of what was to come. It is going to be an impressive house! But to make way for the new, you have to let go of the old - and this is a perfect time to do just that..

Building on solid foundations....

I love this time of year. There is something about it that reminds me of the freshness of Spring. Perhaps because it is commonly a time for reflecting on the past year and planning new adventures. Like little kids working excitedly on a school project, Julie (my partner) and I, spread out large sheets of paper on the dining room table and, armed with coloured pens, worked through a well-tested process. Here are some ideas for you to play with..

In planning for 2006, it pays to acknowledge what worked over the past 12 months and what could have been done differently. We can be quick to condemn our own shortcomings but slow to give ourselves credit for what we have done. So take some time and list your achievements from the past 12 months, however big or small. Profound change can come from small improvements.

Notice also the things you have learned along the way, whether you called those experiences successes or failures. That way you can take advantage of the gained wisdom of the past and ensure you don't make the same mistakes in the coming 12 months.

Talking with a friend, I couldn't help notice some seething resentment about a recent relationship. The scars were still fresh and he was prone to make inaccurate generalizations about women. In the same conversation, he expressed the desire to move on and find another woman to share his life with. Well, that is if anyone can get past his present hostilities! We all suffer emotional scars from relationships but at some stage, we need to forgive and move on. If you are hanging on to grievances and need some tips on the art of forgiving, click here. Just like demolishing a house and carting off the rubble, you can't expect to put new foundations down if the rubble is still in the way and you can't build happy new relationships on a bed of past resentments.

As you review your past year, ask yourself how you could change. Are there old habits that need to change, new attitudes to replace those that have hindered you? Clean up your rubble. Forgive, bless or move on.

When you look into the future, remember Stephen Covey's words of wisdom, 'Begin with the end in mind.' In others words, focus on what you want to achieve, rather than getting too wrapped up in the 'how'. Sometimes the 'how' will present itself when you need it and cannot always be foreseen.
I won't go into too much detail on goal setting here but you can download my free e-book on effective goal setting by clicking here. This is more an encouragement from me to you so that before the busyness of 2006 overtakes you - know where you are going. And have fun with those coloured pens!

PS You will need these codes to open the e-book Username: goals Password: 5321915644