This is do-able!

For a solid article on how to get those resolutions off on the right track this year, check out,  Achievement unlocked! Use science to keep your new year’s resolutions. (Linda Geddes, December 6 2015, from The Guardian)

“…for behaviour change to occur, people must have the capability, opportunity and motivation to make it happen. Often people aren’t making resolutions for the right reasons, says Gardner: “They think that because it’s new year, they’re obliged to say they’ll change their behaviour. But once they face the reality of what they’re doing, they give up because they aren’t motivated enough in the first place.”

The article goes on to note,

“Say 20(25) is the year you plan to write a novel. First, you need to identify good situations in which to initiate your writing: it could be whenever your partner goes out to their gym class. But you also need to plan what to do if your best friend calls and suggests you meet for lunch instead. Gollwitzer calls this “if-then planning”: if X happens, then I will do Y.

If this, then that

…people are two to three times more likely to achieve their goals if they use an “if-then” plan; this goes for all sorts of goals, from weight loss to using more public transport.”

Your new year’s resolutions may just the thing to tackle some questionable habits that need a little re-working. If that’s the case, here’s to your strong success in 2017!

And in defense of a little peace of mind…

On the other hand,

“…Sometimes there’s a very good reason why we’re not slimmer/fitter/richer/nicer than we already are. And that’s because, if we’re completely honest with ourselves, we don’t really need to be.“

What if we begin this new year with an aim to be kind and curious? Kind and curious about our own peculiarities. Curious and kind about the differences between ourselves and each other!

Perhaps we can set to a year of being a little awe-struck by the rarities we find in the world. Nothing will disarm judgment and hatred more quickly than wonder and curiosity. 

Let your own instinctive generosity be your guide

Just this past Christmas season we had some of the best 5 star feedback! It was a reminder of what inspires us to do the work we do year after year. A donor for the Alzheimer Society wrote,

“‘Donate a Car Canada’! What a wonderful collection of folks to deal with – a high class institution. The whole transaction was, without a doubt…one of those nice experiences in life without stress or drama. The car was donated to the Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia. Very much appreciated all the terrific people I interacted with, too…Thank you so much!!!”

With over 80,000 Canadian charities working to serve the people of Canada year ’round, starting 2026 with a resolve to help them keep helping is generous indeed!

Vehicle donation is just one way to do that, of course. As the calendar flips to 2026, check in with the charities you love and sow seeds of support, goodness, and lovingkindness. If we do anything self-helpy in the year ahead, let it be a united resolve to simply do a little good, a little at a time.

Whatever your situation, may 2026 be a year of peace, good health, and much love for you and yours!

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One year, myriad challenges

2020. This was a Hollywood blockbuster thriller/adventure movie of a year. Seeing this year in the rearview mirror is welcome relief for many Canadians. Others, despite health-economic-isolation upheaval, express gratitude for the year’s gifts.

We share in the experience of restricted freedoms; we are widely diverse in how we manage (and interpret) those limitations. All of us find our economics altered; each of us has felt that in unique ways. Some of us have fallen ill; others have been in support roles to all kinds of disrupted care and keeping around health issues.

On a global scale, we are facing into questions of security, purpose, and loneliness. We are afraid and creative; at peace and so angry.

Who will I be in 2020?

Most certainly, this year has reminded us of how little over which we have control. For you that may be an issue of human rights. Perhaps you’ve taken a political or ideological or theological position. Maybe you’ve bunkered-down safely into your own view, feeling informed and sure of your own perspective. Alternatively, you are opting to trust the science and systems of the society that has served you well to date. You may find yourself at odds with the people you love as opinions and fears and hopes all scrabble for footing.

Through it all, there is only one thing that we can truly control: who will I be in this moment? On this day? As I enter a new year, how will I live-love-give-help-withdraw-pause?

I need to keep it simple

With a world on the wobble, I find the need to consistently simplify my own Way of Being. What is my intention in this moment? This interaction? What about my intention for the month? For myself, I keep that simple: I wish to cooperate with Goodness — for all. Goodness toward myself, and for those that I love. ‘To cooperate with Goodness for every new person I encounter. Further, to participate with the Goodness that lives in the one I disagree with.

Our boss offers her own sage process: Prepare, then Live. That is, do the thing(s) you have actual control over, and then go about the business of Living your own loving life.

For some of us, that will mean grieving deeply. 2020 hurled loss and sorrow our way. Sometimes living our own loving life means that we need to turn inward — to love our own Self back to health and wholeness.

Others of us have not been dealt so cruel a blow (or blows). Perhaps we have the resources and strength to keep taking deep breaths, rolling up our sleeves, and offering steady-on courage in the midst of radically adapting Everything.

Take care of each other

2020 has been a great Teacher. We understand more clearly today what is most valuable to us. How we spend our time and limited resources may never be the same. Our ways of taking care of one another will deepen. That feels important, hey?

Whatever the disruption of 2020 has unfurled in your life, we here at Donate a Car Canada wish you Health — in body, mind, and spirit. We wish you provision: enough to live, and enough to share. May your relationships be rich in humor and tenderness. And may Comfort and Peace find you in all of the inbetweens.

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