What do You Want to take into 2025?

As the New Year nears, the question I invite you to ask yourself is: What do you want to take with you into 2025?

Visualize a suitcase – not a rollerboard – but an old-time  suitcase (something similar to the old world map one

pictured here). In it are all of your thoughts, ideas,   belief systems, everything you were taught and/or

influenced by over the past. In other words, your history …whether it was 10 or 20 years ago, or

yesterday, or even earlier today.

Now let’s unpack that suitcase and see what’s in it.

Ask Yourself: What has served you well that you want to continue to avail yourself of? Put that in the now empty suitcase.

What served you well many years ago but upon observation is no longer useful? An example that comes to mind is when we were children we were taught (or at least I  was) “don’t talk to strangers.” This was very good advice for young ones for their safety and protection. So let’s say you’re still carrying that around with you, unconsciously of course until now. How does that manifest? Perhaps you’re driving somewhere you’ve never been and you’re lost. The thought never enters your mind to stop and ask for directions. Why? Because your embedded or historical belief system is ‘don’t talk to strangers.’

Now that it’s at the level of awareness, it makes perfect sense to say, “I’m an adult,  I can make my own decisions” and release that old belief. But before we toss it away, let’s thank it for taking such good care of us for so long and send it to someone who can benefit from it. But this does not go into your suitcase!

It’s your choice what gets repacked, what gets sent to the next person, or what gets tossed. Please know there are no ‘shoulds’ or ‘shouldn’ts’ here. There are no right or wrong answers either. You’re in charge.

How to know what is in the suitcase? Sit quietly and hear the voice in your head.  (if you don’t know what voice, stop reading and get quiet and you’ll hear it). Write

down what it says and know that you can trust that it is one of the belief systems you are carrying around. Usually, it’s a simple statement, it could be judgmental or could be stated as if it were a fact. It is not a fact, it is someone’s opinion and might not even be your own.

Your thoughts and beliefs need to be challenged because not only do they no longer serve you but some are not even true. Maybe they were never true and someone in authority might have superimposed their own beliefs on you.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water however. There are very good thoughts, ideas, and beliefs in that suitcase. They are the very things that have gotten you to this juncture in your life.

Now you have the opportunity to reflect and choose what (and maybe who) goes forward with you into 2025.

I had a major belief that held me back for a bit. Very simply, I heard “You don’t  deserve to fill in the blank.” I would hear this one whenever I took a business risk, raised my fees, or stepped out of my comfort zone, both personally and professionally. I didn’t like hearing that voice, and I disliked even more that a part of me believed it. But I had a choice. I could play it safe and maybe that would quell the voice, or I could shift my perception.

I chose to shift my perception and to challenge the ‘deservability’ with a simple.  “Yes, I deserve to have it all!” So whenever sometimes, not often anymore, when I  am stretching for something I hear that voice and say, “Thank you for sharing. Yes, I do deserve to have this and anything else I strive for.” Remember we live in an  ‘and’ world not an ‘either or’ world. It’s not I can have this but not that, but rather,  I can have it all.

Some belief systems I have heard clients report include (I give you these merely as  examples):

I can’t make more money than my father, it would be disrespectful.

Why would anyone listen to me or buy my products or services?
Wait until they learn this one thing about me?
Where do you think you’re going, young lady or young man?!

And then there are the ‘yes buts.’  Yes, but remember what happened the last time. Yes, but you’re not old enough/pretty enough/handsome enough/thin enough/tall enough/smart enough..fill in your own blank here.

Please enjoy the process and remember to deep breathe while doing this.

Rosanne D’Ausilio, PhD

Happy and safe 2025.

PS We’d love to hear what you have packed and/or unpacked. Did you enjoy the process? Are
you surprised by what you found? Was it useful and informative to you?