As the year draws toward its final days, the natural cycle of closure and new beginnings prompts many of us to look both backwards and forwards. There is a kind of magic in the culture-wide yearning to slow down and reflect. We are always shocked that another year has run its course, and scan back over the past months to see where we are. Has 2001 been a year of personal growth or retrenchment? Have we made the most of our days or has time slipped through our fingers without leaving a trace? How do we want to live differently in 2002?

This year-end newsletter is my invitation to all of us to look deeply at our lives so that we can proactively reshape areas that are rough, polish crevices that are dull and open doors that lie locked.

We create our lives every single day. The sun rises, the day spreads out before us and metaphorically speaking, we start painting. We decide how will we spend our time. We choose with whom we will talk and what will we say. We determine how we will present ourselves to the world. We select what we think about, what we examine deeply and even what we dream of. We make our lives up and with every brush stroke, as we lay a little color down, an image begins to take shape.

But each day is linked to the one preceding: we are creating our futures on the same canvas that holds our past. Our lives are cumulative adventures—creations on a canvas of time. We put red on top of yellow, layer new brush strokes over old and build our lives layer upon layer.

Painting is an art, not a science, and like our lives, it can be pretty messy at times. Sometimes we combine colors and the result is unintended or unexpected or downright unbearable. Sometimes we are careless and paint sloshes out of the can all over the place—we've made a mess. Sometimes we keep painting the same picture over and over and over.

Coaches work with clients to prepare the canvas so that a more satisfying future can be painted upon it. Sometimes a client has a clear vision and needs help creating a plan to make the vision reality. Sometimes a client comes to coaching because s/he needs assistance creating a vision for the future. Sometimes a client needs help breaking old habits so that new ones can replace the unsuccessful ones.

If you have ever noticed that your resolutions last year resemble the ones you made the year before, you're not alone! Most of us have a pretty hard time changing our behavior. Our intention comes from the heart but our follow-through is weak, short-lived and pretty soon we're back to square one and nothing has changed.

Since so many of us ring in the New Year with a resolve to change old habits, here is a coaching tool designed to help you really succeed in embracing new behaviors.

Small constructive actions done on a daily or routine basis can quickly create a sense of accomplishment and generate forward momentum. Like the mountain that grows from a grain of sand, these daily habits form the foundation on which major change takes place. This coaching exercise is called 10 Daily Habits and the first step is to select which 10 habits you will start with.

The power of 10 Daily Habits lies in choosing habits that will support you in moving forward. What action, if taken on a regular basis, would really make a difference for you? Look to where you are weak and create a habit that will strengthen that muscle. These habits can be related to either your professional or your personal life (I will pay all bills on the 15th of each month, I will process all incoming mail daily, I will exercise 4 times a week).

As you create your list of 10 habits, don't forget to include a couple of things that will be fun, satisfying and restorative. If connection with friends is an important value and you've been busy and out of touch, one of your 10 habits might be calling one close friend each day. If you're always doing for everyone else and find it hard to make time for yourself, commit to a candlelit bubble bath once a week-or anything else that will be just for you. You get the picture.

One great way to think about how to make your list is to review the different areas of your life—Health, Money, Career, Family/Friends, Significant Other, Fun/Recreation, Personal/Spiritual Growth and Home/Physical Environment. Focus on an area or two that need some work and create habits that are designed to deliver more satisfaction in that area.

The trick to success with 10 daily habits is in the tracking, and I have attached a chart for your convenience. Make copies of this chart and use a new once each month. Take a minute at the end of each day to fill in the chart. Leave the space blank if you fell short of your goal.

I ask my clients to track their habits daily or weekly, depending on the habit. Once you notice that you are accomplishing a new habit with regularity and without resistance, take it off the list and add a new habit. If you start to slide back, reintroduce the habit onto the list and give yourself a little more time to lock this new behavior into place.

This little exercise is a powerful tool. Over time, you can actually change your life by changing your habits.

About My Coaching:
As a personal, professional and executive coach, it is my goal to bring dynamic leadership, a compassionate heart, and powerful insight to the lives of my coaching clients. I work to help clients identify and pursue what is deeply meaningful in their lives, and collaborate with them to transform vague yearnings or explicit goals into realities.

You can count on me to challenge you, inspire you and support you. I will be a relentless advocate of your dreams and ambitions and help you take bold steps with your life.

My Background:
I am an optimist with a penchant for finding solutions to complex problems in unexpected places. The daily opportunity to use my pragmatism, smarts, humor and heart to help people create lives they truly love gives me tremendous joy.

After graduating from Princeton University, I spent almost 20 years as a feature film, video and CD ROM producer guiding projects to success. By the late 1990's, I decided to channel my action-oriented approach to life into coaching, with the express goal of helping people live lives by design and not default. I completed my professional training at The Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California.

Call me at (310) 393-8082 for a free 1/2-hour coaching session to explore how coaching may benefit you.

Contact Information:
Dina Silver
361 21st Street
Santa Monica, CA 90402
Phone: 310.393.8082
Fax: 310.395.7999
dinasil@earthlink.net