January is the time of fresh starts, fresh ideas, and an urge to create a new, better life.Often, we start out with high hopes, only to sink by February 1 as if the balloon carrying our hopes had been punctured.

1. A ew Year, a ew Life
January is the time of fresh starts, fresh ideas,
and an urge to create a new, better life.Often, we
start out with high hopes, only to sink by
February 1 as if the balloon carrying our hopes
had been punctured.
We need a plan, a roadmap if you will, that we
can follow, that will provide us with a vision, a
plan, and benchmarks that help us say to
ourselves, “Yes, I am moving towards what I
desire.”
Here is my roadmap to creating a new, exciting life:
Calmness: Well-being is essential to calmness, the well-being that comes of being prepared to meet
life. After all, if you were going to the Olympics, would you arrive sleep-deprived, stuffed with
fattening, non-energy generating food, and expect to win a gold medal? Seriously?
And you will need calmness to proceed to the next step:
Clarity: A calm mind is essential to achieving clarity, and the ability to slow down, separate
distraction from relaxation, and be alone with your thoughts is central to achieving clarity.
Meditation for an hour or so at a time is not necessary; clarity and calmness of mind can be
achieved by becoming aware of the key points during your day when it is important to sit back,
breathe, and think.
When switching tasks or moving from one environment to another (even from one room to
another), train yourself to pause, let go of what you have just been doing or thinking, and reflect on
what you will need for the next task or in the next environment.
Confidence: Not just a state of mind, confidence is a feeling that is associated with having a skill
that meets the demands of the situation, and with knowing you have that skill. Peak performers in
every area of life experience real stress before they perform. They rely on the automatic
performance of well-practiced skills to see them through.
Whether your scary event is public speaking, ski jumping, forging terrific relationships, or selling
your pet project, there is a plan that an expert has developed that can get you there.
Look for an expert who is willing to share step-by-step experience, not just hearty assurances that
you are worthy or powerful. They’re out there, those experts.
Courage: Even with calmness, clarity, and confident skills, it can still feel a little frightening to
push back at barriers. Believe it or not, courage too is a skill mastered by experts in risk-taking.

2. Truly brave people know that they will be anxious, and that they will suffer setbacks. A setback
suggests that there is another path to get to where you want to go; failure suggests finality.The brave
set out anyway, using the occasion of a setback to sit back, reflect, and find another way.
Creation: Life is not just about rushing towards one goal; it is about reaching a goal only to have
another one appear. This second goal will require you go through the same steps, in the same
sequence: cultivate calmness, achieve clarity, master confident skills, and be brave enough to take
the small risks to get you there.
Whatever your personal goal for 2014 – increased exercise, decreased weight, better organization of
clutter, more recognition of your abilities – having a roadmap will keep you on track to get there.
Lynette Crane, M.A.(Psychology) and Certified Life Coach,is a Minneapolis-based speaker, writer,
and coach. She has more than 30 years' experience in the field of stress management. She currently
works to provide stress and time pressure solutions to harried women, those women who seek
"Islands of Peace" in their overly-busy lives. Her talks to groups of what she calls "harried women"
are receiving rave reviews. Visit her website at http://www.creativelifechanges.com/ to see more indepth articles and to view her programs.