Okay, so we have all heard of the 12 days of the holidays- the tune may now be ringing in tin your ears with the mere mention of it. Instead, I want you to replace that tune with the 12 Days to a New Year, the 12 Days to a New You. In this case, you are the one to write the rhythm and the notes, the tune, the soundtrack to accompany your 12-step plan to finish out this year with solutions- instead of starting next year with recycled solutions – also known as re-solutions.

On the first day of New You, my true self gave to me- not a partridge or a pear tree but…
a new way to harness the power of you, the power of your mind and heart and to generate happiness.

“Happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want.” So spoke Dr. Chris Peterson, world-renowned expert and researcher on happiness and ‘learned optimism’, a term coined by Dr. Marty Seligman, his colleague. Those words stuck with me from this past weekend when I attended a seminar of world-class researchers on ‘positive psychology’ – in a word – happiness.

Instead of waiting for January 1, 2008 –YIKES- and the concept of re-solving- re-solutions- the word itself implies that we did not follow through on a solution or solutions- I am going to give you one step each day that you can take, one exercise (hmm, let’s reframe that to a playful activity) that you can choose to do to set yourself up so you can ‘REALLY Do It!’* during 2008 – so you really create the life you love and love the life you live.

(And, okay, I know that it is really 14 days to the new year – but today is my Dad’s birthday, the first without him. So this is my gift to me from him and to him from me. I thank you for letting the precise number twelve thing go.)

If you choose to embark on this twelve-day adventure, you are going to give yourself the ability to choose your language to create your reality, to turn your dreams into actions and to generate happiness at will.

The What:
In this twelve-day twelve-step program, I will offer you a suggestion each day that you can choose to use – or not. Each suggestion is based on research from behavioral science, mind-body medicine and sports science and has been proven in real world settings.

The Why It Is Not as Easy as ‘Just Do-ing It!’:
I will tell you why we don’t do these things that we know are good for us – to normalize the resistance to change that can pull us all down just like gravity.

The How to: The Winner’s Way System to
‘REALLY DO IT!’*:
And I will give you proven strategies that I have researched, been interviewed about and written about in media, in trade publications, and in research journals. These strategies are also presented in what I call my ‘fifth daughter’ – my book - The Winner’s Way: A Proven Method for Achieving Your Personal Best in Any Situation (McGraw-Hill, 2004).*

‘REALLY DO IT!’ – the ball’s in your court daily play (also known as exercise):
Each day, I will give you a playful activity to do, something you can do on the fly – in the heat of work stress, family pressure, holiday-induced traffic and other end-of-year crazy-making events.

Choose to introduce this concept into your life as play-for-your-brain-and-heart-and-soul and you will be on the road to designing and implementing your dreams as you soar and stride into the new you of the next year.

Choose to share these concepts with others to give the gift that keeps on giving and change a few lives on your own!

The strategies work - thousands of people who have worked with me as clients and who have attended my keynote and seminar presentations have put these strategies and plays into play to make their own lives – on work and daily fields – the masterpieces that they desired but that had remained pictures in their hearts and recycled re-solutions night after night and year after year.

The same system enabled one skier slated for Olympic competition to significantly improve his times in races and, then, when he was tragically hit by a snowmobile that illegally strayed into the race course on which he was skiing at high speeds, he used the same strategies and ‘exercises’ to learn to walk again and, then, to don skis knowing that he would never ski competitively. Today he sets race courses professionally and watches those who were his competitors soar at speeds at which he dreamed and of which he was capable- and he is happy!!!

The same exercises enabled a client to change her professional endeavors from management to writing and to become a published author – and, when blindsided by a fast-growing cancer, she harnessed the same strategies to build meaning for state-of-art surgical procedures that enabled her to live cancer-free and to return to master’s level competition as a swimmer- and she is happy!!!

If – make that WHEN – you choose to implement each of these playful activities over the next twelve days, you will see your own spirits soar- without eggnog or other chemical additives!

You are the artist. I offer you the gifts of life-painting techniques and playful activities to practice and hone your technique. Make them your own and watch your work-of-art that is your life’s creation flourish in living color and fast-forward on-demand action video!

So here we go.

Put the first step of this twelve-day change-your-life adventure into play by accessing the next blog entry- From Misery to Mastery- It’s in the bag you choose. And it is posted today!!!

Looking forward,
Pam Brill

*Concepts published in The Winner’s Way: A Proven Method for Achieving Your Personal Best in Any Situation (McGraw-Hill, 2004) – available at:
view link

Come and play more with these concepts with food-for-thought for your brain at:
www.inthezoneinc.com