Each New Year, I don’t create resolutions. I select a New Year’s theme. I normally select a New Year’s theme based on an idea that strikes me… generally something to support my goals. But this year, nothing was coming, so I decided to approach my theme selection from a different angle.
Back in 2012, a good friend taught me about the 9 year cycles we go through in our lives. Each year has a specific purpose in our development, and we cycle through these 9 years from a fresh start in a year 1 to a point of completion in a 9 year.
I’m heading into a 7 personal year which is all about planning, self-discovery, and diving deeper within. Generally, it’s not a year of making great strides in the physical world, but more exploring the depths of your inner world. It’s preparation for the 8 year which is about abundance, magnification and going big. If I do my inner work of the 7 year right, I should be ready to roll with big things in 2018.
This fits with how I’ve been feeling … that there is a “big idea” out there for me but not yet. There is preparation to do … something to learn and or be clarified first.
As far as goals go…
I’m currently writing my Restoring Liberty book and hope to release it this year. That’s not necessarily any “big thing” for me. I’ve written over 25 books. Writing a book is my norm. The only thing big about it is that it aligns with my mission. I believe I’m here to stand for freedom and to educate people around freedom. I honestly don’t anticipate that the book will be a big best seller. It’s more for me — fine tuning my ability to articulate the principles of freedom.
I’d really like to write a fantasy novel or some kind of fiction novel around the principles next. I anticipate that will start to take shape in my mind as I come to the end of my 7 year (2017). It should come out in 2018… or at least get written then. That’s my guess anyway. It’s percolating at a conceptual level — not at a story line level really. I’ve had some thoughts, but nothing that propels me forward.
Looking Back on Where I’ve Been
A 7 year is about taking things easy, working on your inner game. I’ve shifted dramatically in the last 3 years. I put my systems in place in 2014 (year 4), headed into a roller coaster adventure year traveling and exploring my freedom in 2015 (year 5), and settled into creating a new home life in 2016 (year 6).
I’m not the same person I was. Adventurous, roller coaster 2015 took me to some lost places, but somehow God reached down, snatched me up, and put me on a better path.
I feel different. I’m not certain the spiritual trail I followed pre-2015 works for me anymore. Maybe I had started to form wrong perceptions of the spiritual world. I don’t know. I just know I’m skeptical of a lot of the things I used to buy into. I’ve gone through a major reboot, and I feel like God wants me to adjust my spiritual perspectives.
Even though I don’t feel as “on my spiritual game” as I was prior to 2015, there are some good things that have come with the spiritual reboot of that year. I’m not as black and white about things. But the more I keep going to church, keep studying, and keep teaching at church, the more I feel the Spirit tuning my spirit to its frequency.
Tears come more readily than they used to. I rarely, if ever, cried — even when I needed to. I’m more compassionate, less judgmental, more forgiving, more willing to give people room to make mistakes and grow. More patient with people’s progress and my own.
Selecting a New Year’s Theme
Setting the numbers aside, even if I wasn’t in a “let it be” 7 year, I don’t feel like being pushed. I’m not feeling ambitious and don’t feel the need to force myself to be so.
I’ve been in observation mode with my own spirituality since 2015. I’ve observed how the Spirit has been shaping me, changing me. In a very subtle, gentle way the Spirit has been tweaking my desires so that I have less desire for sin, more desire for good. It’s been a very organic process. I have not had to “pull myself up by my bootstraps and make myself be good.”
This is why I believe the primary thing I need in 2017 is the Spirit.
Every small interaction with the Spirit adds a drop of oil to my lamp so I can shine brighter.
- It cleanses and purifies me just a little bit more,
- Aligns my desires and will with God’s will,
- Clarifies my purpose and life mission,
- Liberates me from internal and external bondage,
- Teaches me who I am,
- Helps me feel the love of God,
- Enables me to love others more,
- Brings me joy, peace, hope and faith, and
- Propels me to act when the timing and ideas are right.
Degree by degree with every encounter, the Spirit transforms me. It’s not a “muster the willpower” to be more, better or greater. Seeking the Spirit daily facilitates a kind, gentle, and organic transformation which is in alignment with a 7 year.
So, my theme for this year is simple:
Experience the Spirit Daily
That’s it. I can do that by watching inspirational materials, reading scriptures, listening to uplifting music, reading inspirational books and articles, journaling, studying, sharing/teaching what I’m learning.
Plan to Feel the Spirit More
As far as my business goes, I’m calendaring my year with my key offerings, and then I’m developing a daily action plan for marketing those offerings. Each day I’ll know what I’m supposed to be doing. By knowing what I need to do each day for my business, I can save lots of indecision and floundering time, get the job done, and then have the rest of the time for experiencing the Spirit and following what it guides me to do.
That’s what I’m working on this week — planning my year and creating my marketing calendar. I’ll be sharing how I do this in my next Marnie’s Marketing Mondays if you’d like to join me.
How To Calendar Your Year for Success
Monday, January 9, 2016
at 2pm ET / 1pm CT / noon MT / 11am PT.
Just fill out the form on the upper right of this page to get details on how to join in.
About Marnie Pehrson Kuhns
Marnie Pehrson Kuhns is a Certified SimplyAlign Practitioner™ who uses music and creativity to mentor you past barriers, fears and doubts to discover, create, align with, and deliver your soul’s song (the mission, message or purpose you are on this earth to live). Marnie is a best-selling author with 31 fiction and nonfiction titles. If you'd like Marnie and her husband Dave to work with you personally on Your Great Reinvention, get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.
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