31 Writers, 31 Lessons-Lessons 2: Now Is Always The Best Time For A New Beginning

I've been blog friends with Christa from Christa in New York for some time now. She writes daily blog posts that I find so inspirational. She's also a yoga teacher who is in the process of making her dreams become her full-time life and is not afraid to try NEW things! Here she is to talk about that and about beginnings! Please Welcome Christa Avampato:

Welcome to January – a global celebration of beginning also known as New Year’s Resolutions. A few years ago, I started to make one giant resolution and then publicly write about my progress every day. In 2009, I wrote about my quest for more hope and learned the lesson that the more earnestly we look for hope, the more likely we are to find it. In 2010, I bundled up all of that hope and used it as a down payment to live an extraordinary life. In the process, I found that the best way to live an extraordinary life is to find the extraordinary in very ordinary moments like the warmth of the sun on my face while walking my dog in Central Park. As 2011 approached, I started to panic. I couldn’t think of a resolution that would live up to the previous two.

Friendship to the rescue! In the Fall of 2010, my friend, Amanda, asked me to write a guest post for her blog on the topic of maintaining a Zen feeling while living in New York City. My post turned into a call to action encouraging New Yorkers to relish being beginners and embracing everything that goes along with it – experimenting, innovating, iterating, and yes, that infamous F-word, Failure.

I wondered aloud if more of a collective beginner’s mindset could restore Zen in a city known for its frenetic pace. In that post, I found my mega New Year’s Resolution for 2011 – to become an expert beginner. I’ve dwelled in the land of perfectionism most of my life; I chase mastery in everything I do. 2011 was a chance for me to let it all go.

On January 1, 2011, I began a journey of my own into the world of being a beginner. At first, it was terrifying. Having the courage to live in the mind of a beginner every day was a huge shift for me. However, I committed to it publicly, in writing. There was no turning back so on I went.

I tried my hand at a whole host of new activities and responsibilities – from one-time events like a fiction writing class to life-changing decisions like getting my therapeutic yoga certification and founding a nonprofit, Compass Yoga, dedicated to providing yoga and wellness programming to people with mental and physical health challenges. With a good deal of trepidation, I began to publicly pitch my teaching, writing, and public speaking skills to new clients, partners, agents, and conferences. I learned how to be a confident dog owner, which took a lot more courage, patience, and efforts than I ever imagined it would take. And at the end of the year, I booked my first trip to India and committed to a school for my next level of yoga teacher training.

Through the experiences of 2011, I developed a great love of beginning. I learned to revel in new starts and blank pages, no matter what day of the calendar year they happened. In this way, every day became January 1st for me. We can always begin – exactly where we are. It takes a lot of courage to start, but over time our confidence muscle builds like any other muscle. Practice makes a good beginner and now is the best time to start!

Christa Avampato is a yoga teacher who learns from her students every day, a product developer who loves the possibilities of new technology, and a writer who believes that hope and creativity are the most powerful duo on Earth. She travels with a purpose and regularly practices the high art of people-watching in New York City, where she makes her home with her rescue pup, Phin. Follow her online at http://www.christainnewyork.com and http://www.twitter.com/christanyc to learn about her big 2012 beginning—making the leap to work on Compass Yoga full-time. Learn more about Compass Yoga at http://www.compassyoga.com.

365 Lessons-Lesson 360: Make New Year's Resolutions You Can Keep

Every year, around this time, people start thinking about their New Year's Resolutions. But making resolutions is one thing and keeping them is another. If you don't really plan to keep your resolutions, then why even make them? You have good intentions, but do you really have the follow through? Are you really committed to what you set out to do, come rains, storms, hurricanes, ups and downs in life? The word resolve means to have firmness or fixedness of purpose; determination. Before you set out to make half-hearted resolutions, see if you can REALLY say that you are DETERMINED, come hell or high water, to see your resolutions through. Otherwise, forget it.

One reason many fail to keep their resolutions is because the purpose of what they want to do is not established. It's important to always keep the purpose of your resolutions in mind. This helps you keep your resolutions when times get tough or you feel like quitting. When I set out to write 365 lessons on my blog for 2010, my point was to write lessons I've learned on a daily basis and share these in the form of a blog so that not only I could benefit, but others could as well. By opening up the door to lessons I have learned and inviting you on my journey, it became a shared journey in which you also got to participate and share your own insights. This was so helpful to me to make this public. I was held accountable for sticking to my plan by doing so and when I felt like quitting, many of you encouraged me to stand up and keep going. Making your resolutions publicly known helps you to stay accountable for them. Also, having others as part of your resolutions, helps you to stick to your goals. Here are the resolutions I wrote on my blog last year for January 1, 2010 called Lesson 1: Be Disciplined:

As many of you know, I've been writing a book entitled Lessons from the Monk I Married. This has proved to be no easy feat, but I continue. My first resolution is to have it completed and published this year. My second resolution is to write on this blog 365 lessons I've learned. These lessons I've learned will be written here on a daily basis and I will finish this project on January 1, 2011. My other resolutions include sticking to my daily meditation practice and keeping up a regular yoga practice.

I'm happy to say that I kept all of those resolutions with the exception of getting my book completed and published this year. In retrospect, that was not a very achievable goal. It was more a wish. However, I did get closer to that goal. In 2010, I received agent representation for my book, Lessons from the Monk I Married, and my book was acquired by Seal Press/Perseus Books to be published throughout North America in spring 2012! My deadline for completely finishing the book is March 1, 2011. See what amazing things can happen if you really RESOLVE to stick to your resolutions through the thick and thin of it. Even if you don't achieve your goals, at least you get closer to realizing them by making this strong resolve in your life.

Clarity is also important in making resolutions you can keep. Having clarity of purpose and clearly stating what you want to accomplish helps you have focus. If your resolutions aren't focused and clear, they will be hard to achieve. They also need to be achievable within one year. Also, regularly reminding yourself of your resolutions or keeping them pinned on a bulletin board in your office helps you keep focus. Make sure the purpose of your resolutions are clearly stated there as well.

Finally, live from the answer. I wrote a blog post about this entitled Lesson 328: Live from the Answer. Live as if your resolutions have already happened. Since the past, present and future are all connected, in a way, they have. You really have to believe in what you are doing and, more importantly, who you are. If you don't believe in these things, then how can you expect to continue. If you make your intentions very clear, then every action should support your intentions. When your purpose is crystal clear, when it has become your mantra for life, then you will finally see that ANYTHING is not only possible, it's probable.