As you read this, the new year has just been kicked off.

For lots of us, a brand new year means brand new resolutions, fresh intentions, new plans.

For lots of us, a brand new year brings a lot of excitement for making a new start.

For lots of us, that brand new year gets overloaded with lots of expectations.

And before we know it, we have put some nice crisp pressure on ourselves.

I have to make it work.

This has to be the successful year in which I make all my dreams come true.

And any less won’t do.

And then, despite our resolutions, excitement and determination, things don’t go as expected.

We didn’t go for a run yesterday, though we said we would.

We forgot to set our boundaries and said “yes”, when we really wanted to say “no”.

We ate take-out pizza instead of those fresh organic salads we said we would.

We felt the fear when we were about to venture out of our comfort zone, and chickened out instead of doing it anyway.

And then, they pop up again, those familiar voices. Sometimes just inside our heads, sometimes echoed by the people around us.

This will never work.

You are just deluding yourself.

You are such a failure.

And then we feel inclined to give up, to shelve our beautiful intentions, to throw away our big plans.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Because there’s always that powerful little gift.

It’s a gift that only we can give ourselves.

It’s a gift saying “I am worthy, no matter what.”

It’s a gift saying “I care about me.“

It’s a gift that is handing us our power back.

It’s a gift that we can give ourselves any time.

Be it the 13th of February, the 7th of June or the 18th of December.

It’s the gift of recommitting to ourselves.

Choosing to give ourselves that gift is living up to our full potential.

Choosing to give ourselves that gift is living our life, instead of living out someone else’s expectations.

Choosing to give ourselves that gift is giving it our all, in our fabulous imperfect ways.

Choosing to give ourselves that gift is living our lives, in our own sweet ways.

So let’s give ourselves that powerful little gift and let’s make 2012 a fabulous brilliant year.

Not because we are lucky.

But because we choose to.

Time and again.

Photo from here.