What a whirlwind start to the Chinese Year of the Water Dragon!  I have it on the best authority that this year brings messages of change.  Shifts in consciousness are promised for the months ahead, as we'll witness the collapse of mechanisms and icons established under an old order.  A polar shift that has already taken place heralds reform, whether we like it or not.

It's time to get your house in order! Which means first and foremost, sorting out YOU!  Set aside time to contemplate the bigger picture, as well as taking care of personal transformation to meet the inevitable changes afoot.  You might like to ask yourself: "What has meaning and heart for me?"  and intend to bring in more of that! Your resilience and what you can offer the world has never been more important than at this time.

Equip yourself with my proven eight fold approach to take you step-by-step to an increase in certainty and ensure your success - whatever success means to you. Best be prepared!

In preparation for the year of the Water Dragon, Astrologer Edgar Winter, Feng Shui Expert, Richard Giles and I joined forces and we rocked the local scene on Saturday. "How To Set Up Your Best Year Yet" was my topic and had the full house up and dancing. Simply the best way to bring in an outstanding year of health, happiness and success. I look forward to supporting you to have your year your way - filled with a wealth of vitality, meaningful moments, prosperity on all levels as you embrace being more you - sharing your message to assist humanity as this interesting new paradigm hustles in.

Knowing ahead of time is a powerful survival technique in a world where uncertainty plays a huge role. The water dragon combines the elements earth and water. Expect mudslides, earth quakes and floods this year.  These are metaphoric and symbolic as well as literal.  Water has to do with emotions and earth with your body and as the practical aspects of life.   This year promises to be a tumultuous one emotionally and mentally as well as physically.  Here are the eight stages to achieving a solid core in slippery times:

1. Decide
2. Commit
3. Know Your Outcome
4. Take Action
5. Have Sensory Acuity
6. Have Behavioural Flexibility
7. Operate from a Physiology and Psychology of Excellence
8. Acknowledge & Celebrate

1. Decide:  It's time to hop off the fence!  Simplify your life and take decisions that will support you to consolidate, strengthen yourself (through clearing old issues and mindset that doesn't support who you'd like to become), educate yourself, gather new resources relevant to becoming more resilient. Decide to empower yourself.

2. Commit: You are worth it. Give yourself the gift of committing to a course of action (or inaction!) that will serve, sustain, support and nurture you. Commit.

3. Know your Outcome: It's imperative to know where you are heading. Once you can put your destination or outcome into words you can have it! Until you can language or conceptualise what you want, the message you are communicating is unclear.  (By the way, you can set an intention to become clear on your outcome)

4. Take Action:  Take action on the metaphysical level and the physical. The two track approach is vital to achieve your goals.  That means intention setting, thinking and meditation and a large dollop of doing.  The actions you take can be small steps or huge leaps. You must start to take action as soon as you have committed to an outcome. This could be anything from making a phone call, to creating a list or scheduling a meeting. Or it could be move house, book a flight or find a coach.

5. Have Sensory Acuity: Take the messages your body and experience give you seriously.  Trust your gut instincts and follow through on what your inner guidance is letting you know.  Notice what you are seeing, telling yourself and feeling and be bold in adjusting your plans.  Today my instinct is to attend to the follow up from the recent seminars I ran and to get this newsletter out rather than to write, which is what today was allocated for. I am trusting that! Hello! It means we get to connect, you and I.

6.  Have Behavioural Flexibility:  Your capacity to adapt and move with the times and mood whilst remaining aligned to your purpose, your mission and your values is one of the most powerful strategies you can adopt for your survival, health and happiness in a rapidly changing world.  Deciding to be flexible means a more peaceful relaxed existance.  I've recently experienced delays in delivery of artwork and website creation, and adopting a very laid back, philosophical approach has been not only useful, it has opened up spaces for reflection and review I would not otherwise have had. It has also allowed me to maintain relationships that could have been compromised if I had insisted on upholding the planned finish lines. Can you relate to this?

7. Operate from a physiology and psychology of excellence:  This works so very well!  If you live into being who you would like to become, right now - you'll find you are you'd like to be. For example, when I decided I wanted to become a successful coach, i asked myself "What would a successful coach be doing? How would a successful coach be thinking? How would a successful coach carry herself?" Then I did that. I also asked myself "Who are the Coaches and Mentors I most admire?" I then learned what they did and modelled them. It worked! The same has proved effective with my journey as a writer.

8. Acknowledge and Celebrate: Build your inner collection of positive reference points by taking time to acknowledge yourself for what you're doing really well and celebrate those wins!  This practice strengthens your esteem and confidence. It also attracts more of the same - which is what you'd want, isn't it?

It's been a delight to make so many new connections, and celebrate existing ones, over the past ten days.  The feedback from my Seminar  "How to have a Thriving Coaching Business in Topsy Turvy Times"  and "So What's the Fuss about NLP?"  (for the International Coach Federation) has been sensational. I applaud those of you who have already taken action on the pointers you received - and for letting me know your positive results already. Looking forward to learning of your achivements.  Conspiring for your successes, health and wealth, as ever.