3 Practical Steps to Tapping Into Your Own Strengths in 2021

A New Year, a new beginning

A New Year should be dedicated to new beginnings. Simple, right? Sometimes it really is that easy – new plans, new projects, new beginnings, and we just get started. A new beginning to get us up and ready. However, it’s not always so straight forward. The start of 2021 is characterized by some unique and extraordinary elements and is therefore a lot more complex for many of us. So, where do you find your strength to get started? Where do you find your clarity, and how do you seek for the beauty within this period?

Let’s talk for a moment about new beginnings

Every one of us can recall the beginnings that led us to some kind of perceived success. You will likely remember the moment your current relationship started, or even the time you realized that you needed to break up. You might remember a key moment that marked the start of your career, or the time you chose to start a family of your own. Just as easily, we can recall the beginnings of an end. The time you wanted to start eating healthily or start with a new sport, and failed. Or when you wanted to start a business and it did not go according to plan.

Starting is magical

What is interesting with all beginnings is that, regardless of whether we succeeded or not, there is something intrinsically fascinating and exciting in those moments in which we start something for the first time.

There is an excitement in facing the unknown, and in exploring new possibilities, desires and plans. There is an element of magic within every new moment in life, when a new beginning is marked. The moment in which we choose our profession, or what to study, or the moment in which we start a new relationship with someone dear to us. Even the moment upon waking up in the mornings holds so many possibilities. What will this day look like? How it will unfold? And, will our day really turn out like we have planned? This does not necessarily mean that we always feel great in these moments, yet, there is something special when raw possibility begins to take shape and find its own journey.

2021 is upon us, and a few people have recently asked me: Where do you find your strength to get started? How do you manage to tap into the resources to get the wheels moving once again? There is so much uncertainty and so many things can still happen to disrupt our plans. Many of us are also starting this New Year from a place of vulnerability. And yet it is a New Year with new beginnings. So, where do you find your strengths to get started?

The importance of a process within a bigger picture

One of the things that helps me deal with new beginnings is to see them as part of a process within the context of a bigger picture.

A beginning is often marked by one point in time. However, even in a race where there is a clear starting line and a finish, the true beginning starts long before the participants ever reach the line up. It starts with them choosing to train, keeping the competitive spirit, and adopting an attitude of discipline and uncompromising perseverance. Standing on the starting line is just the result of a lot of beginnings that started prior to that particular moment in time.

When you think of what you want to achieve in your life, you probably realize that you started laying the foundations for your goals long before the start of 2021. When I think, for instance, about the time when the Pantarei Approach was established, there is the date I write on any official document. However, there is a completely different starting date, or to be honest, dates, that are etched in my heart. The process that led me to establish my own approach, was one that took many years. In fact, I still feel in many regards, that I am only at the beginning. There are so many dreams that Pantarei wants to accomplish, and so many plans are yet to unfold.

3 Practical Steps to Tapping Into Your Own Strength At The Start Of This New Year:

1. Realize the process you are in

What is important to you? You can call it your life intention, your passion, or your values. Whatever it is, it is bigger than one specific area of interest, your business, or even your family. For me, the Pantarei Approach is so much more than the somatic school we have established. It is the way in which I would love for people to communicate. It is the world I would love to live in. And it is my fierce belief that we can all share a reality of growth, in which our conflicts, differences and complexities lead us toward harmony, unity and strength. When I keep that in mind, it is much easier for me. I can then acknowledge and accept that Pantarei will likely grow much more slowly in 2021 than what I would have liked. However, even this year is simply part of the long-term process that I am in.

2. Trust this process

Trust yourself and your heart, and also trust that something in all the craziness we are experiencing is moving us closer towards our dreams. I am not a particularly religious person, but I believe that beyond our own efforts and choices there is something bigger in life that forms part of our choice. Something we cannot fight, even if we sometimes need to try. The only way I know how to deal with it, is by trusting it. What you trust is up to you, but the element of trusting is a big part of finding your own strength. Sometimes we need to trust the feeling that everything happens for reason, or that our frustrations will lead us somewhere good. Sometimes we need to trust the person we love, and sometime we need to trust our own heart.

3. Small steps are just as important as the big steps

If you don’t have the power to start a big movement, then start with a small one. On some days our biggest achievement is the fact that we got out of bed in the morning. Don’t measure your success against that of anyone else. Remember part 1 – it is all part of a process. And there are no guarantees. Just keep moving. Do something. Allow the first small step to lead you to another, and another. And before you know it, you will realize that a new beginning has unfolded and you are standing in the very center of it.

So where do you find your strength to get started in 2021? What is the process that you are part of? What do you trust? And what is the movement you wish to start today?

 

Written by Vered Manasse