Welcome to 2021

I hope you all had a wonderful festive period and welcomed in 2021 even though it may have been more tame than normal. Mine was a quiet and reflective period spent with my husband and son, along with Matthew McConaughey and his amazing reflection on his life so far (Greenlights book). We did lots of walking in nature, from the beach to the hills and spent many an evening catching up on Netflix. I even had a few pyjama days - Amazing!!!

My goal for the festive period was to unplug and relax, and I managed to do just that - first time in 2020. On New Year’s Eve I always follow the same ritual. I have been doing this for the last 17 years and I find it both cathartic but also quite magical.

I get comfortable with a glass of wine and I write my reflections on the year, I capture my learnings, I reflect upon my experiences and achievements and also what I am grateful for. I then write my affirmation for the future. For those of you who have done our Certificate programme you will know what this entails. It starts off with the same sentence every year.

"My name is Gillian McMichael, it’s December 2021 and I've had an amazing year and these are the reasons why...." and so I write my affirmation for 2021. I make it real yet also stretching and I put down all the things I want to experience, achieve and learn as though it has already happened.

I then complete it with four promises to myself. I am not a big fan of New Years Resolutions as these get broken normally by week 3 of January so instead, I make promises to myself as I know these will not be broken.

When you write an affirmation and make promises to yourself there are four golden rules that go with it. These rules are very important and should not be ignored; otherwise your affirmations and promises to yourself will not be met. The rules are as follows:

1. Write your affirmation
2. Say it out loud so the universe can hear it
3. Believe it will happen
4. Show gratitude when things happen

So, if you haven't done this for 2021 - I invite you to do so and see how your year unfolds. I guarantee you will achieve nearly all of what you write down - it may not happen exactly when you want it to, or even as you expect it to be - but it will happen if you follow the four golden rules.

I hope you have a wonderful 2021 and all your dreams, goals and aspirations manifest in the way you want them to.

Lots of love

Gillian x