A New Years Tradition

I have developed a bit of an aversion to the idea of goal setting. Most likely from years of 'Personal Progress' and 'Pursuit of Excellence' programs fed to me all my life. Not to mention daily and weekly goal setting for nearly two years of my life while laboring in the mission field.

So now I call it 'setting intentions' with lots of room for shifting and natural progress. I know, it's goal setting by another name; but, it's more palatable to me that way. It's a way for me to take an inventory of the past and focus myself for the future without guilt and judgment.

arrhh treasures await

For the last several years I've had a tradition of treasure mapping for the new year.

It started out as something fun to do with my children when they were young. We would sit in the living room cutting out pictures and words from old magazines pasting them onto poster boards to represent our intentions for the new year. The boys, not liking it at first, would eventually settle into the creativity of it and manage to come up with some pretty clever boards by the end. My daughter and I continued the practice long after the boys and Suzie grew tired of it.

It soon became something Katie and I did with several of her friends each year. By this time I had added in the bagua concept. Meaning the feng shui bagua map that helped direct the creativity into particular areas giving us some ideas to start our process. We would section out our maps into nine areas and start cutting and pasting away. It was always fun to visit and create together and see what everyone came up with for their board.

Treasure Map/Bagua Template

Katie has carried this tradition into her adult life and shares it with her friends each year. I, on the other hand, have gotten away from the magazine, cutting, pasting idea and now I just create my treasure map on the computer with a template that I created a few years back. (Mostly because I'm lazy).

I often times pull up maps from past years and think of the progress or shifts I have made through time. I'm sometimes surprised how my intentions have manifested or evolved even though I haven't looked at my map for a year. Then I work through my new map with ideas of what is important to me; launching into the new year with a feeling of positive intention and a bit of satisfaction that I can be artsy craftsy. 

This year's treasure map consists of a myriad of intentions ranging from walk more/eat less to traveling to Kentucky along the Bourbon Trail for Suzie and my 20th anniversary. I also want to take computer programming classes through Linfield's Department of Continuing Education. And, as always, I add Maxine Denver (Paul and Kelly's business) and Kinfolk (Nate and Katie's business) fully confident in their growth and prosperity. Along with a special mention of Jacob's graduation from Pacific University in the spring!

It's hard to see but it's all in there: 

Treasure Map of 2014

I'm thinking I'll work some more on my map of 2014. Maybe throw in a few manifestations for marriage equality and peace on earth. The big smiley face in the center goes a long way and leaves lots of room for growing, shifting and laying down on the couch whenever possible.

I am moving into a year of reaping all the goodness from my hard work and efforts of the past five years. I hope everyone has a fantastic 2014.