Setting the Course for 2017

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” ~ Lao Tzu
 
We are coming to the end of 2016 and this is when I find time to reflect on the past year, so that I can look at the current direction of my life and see if that is where I want to continue heading or if I need to adjust and change the course.
 
At the end of the year I always reflect and journal about the past year.  I focus on:

• How I spent my time
• What is important in my life and I want to continue for the future
• What I need to let go of that is no longer serving me
• What I am grateful for
• What valuable lessons I learned
• What are the qualities of my most satisfying relationships and how do I continue to foster them
  
• What books impacted me

 
I answer these questions and reflect on what is most important and then I come up with a short statement or acronym for what I want to focus on for the upcoming year.  It is not a resolution, but an affirmation of what matters in my life and where I want to put my attention so that I will focus my energy on what really matters most to me.  In this way, I will end up where I am heading.  After I have answered the questions for this year, I go back and review the answers from the previous years.  I see where my focus has shifted and stayed the same on this journey in life.
 
One of my favorite parts of this exercise is to look back at the books that impacted me the most.  In some ways these books taught me life lessons, evoked emotions in me or made me look at life from another perspective. Here is my list for 2016:

• Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton Small Great Things A Novel by Jodi Picoult
  
  
• Year of Yes - How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
  
  
• Soul Shifts: Transformative Wisdom for Creating a Life of Authentic Awakening, Emotional Freedom & Practical Spirituality by Barbara DeAngelis
  
  
• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  
  
• Kindred  by Octavia E. Butler
  
  
• The Gratitude Diaries: How A Year Looking on the Brightside Can Transform your Life by Janice Kaplan
  
  
• A Course in Miracles Made Easy by Alan Cohen
  
  
• I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai
  
  
• Quiet - The Power of Introverts in A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
  
  
• When Breath Becomes Air  by Paul Kalanithi
  
  
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
  
  
• The Muralist by Barbara Shapiro
  
  
• Woman of God by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
  
  
• The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto and Have A Little Faith by Mitch Albom

 
Please share the books that impacted you the most in 2016 so we can all learn about great books.

What matters most in your life that you want to focus your attention on for 2017?