2012 LogoQuestions - The Year Of Meaning

Below, enjoy a guest post by my hubby and health coach at large, Steven Todd Smith, AADP CHC. Steve is the founder of Ahimsa Life Coaching, an awe-some wellness coaching practice that works with the individual to find the food and lifestyle choices that best support you. Steve also help his clients make gradual, lifelong changes that enable them to reach their current and future health and happiness goals and sustain them on their own. Bottom line: if you're in need of a wellness boost, Steve's your man. To learn more about Steve's work, check him out at www.ahimsalifecoaching.com.

 Happy New Year! Happy 2012!

 

You did it!  You made it!....Now what are you going to do?
We face a whole new year, a leap year this year, which means 366 days this time around!  Still thinking about last year?  Glad or sad it's gone?  Are you excited for these next 12 months?  Everyone has their own take on time when the New Year swings around.  So often, you'll hear, "I'm sooo glad we're done with 2011.  It sucked." or "Ugh. Now we have to do it allll over again." Or you might hear "I'm gonna do everything I wanted to do last year, and didn't do, this year!" only to fast forward those 365 days and hear the exact same thing repeated.  

What makes a year different?  What makes what you get out of a year different?  There are many different answers to that question, but, ultimately, it all comes down to one facet of life: meaning.  What does/will this year mean to you?  What will be the meaning of your thoughts and decisions? What will your actions, your choices mean to you this year?  

Without meaning, can you truly have appreciation, experience fulfillment, revel in acheivement, etc?  Sometimes we go through our year with more focus on the "what to do" and the "how to do" than the "Why."  And without the Why, it's very easy to get lost.  Why do we so often go through the year and, upon reaching the end, feel: we've let ourselves down, left a calendar year unfulfilled, can't wait to escape the "hell" we consider the past 52 weeks?  It most likely is because we focused on the wrong questions primarily and didn't allow our fueling "Why?" lead us through the magical journey of our lives.  

In Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, a psychiatrist who labored in four different concentration camps during WWII, he quotes Nietzsche: "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How."  While that statement, of course, can apply to one's state of extreme suffering, as in a prisoner of a concentration camp, it can apply to all levels of life: those who go through the year with "mild suffering;" those who waltz through life unconsciously and unnoticing; those who strive hard in their work and play but still feel unrequited in their efforts, feel lost, even just feel "fine."

So this year, 2012, shall be The Year of Meaning, the year we ask "Why?"  This shall be the year upon which we dig deeper into ourselves to gain a better understanding of who we are, what drives us, where do we want to go - and attached to each of those questions, a big, fat "WHY?"  Some of the questions we will be able to honestly and, without judgment, answer ourselves.  Others shall be left out in the open until that light bulb turns on.  If we put out the questions into the universe, though, then an answer will return to us...we just have to wait patiently and accept.  

To help you along your journey (as myself and ALC begin a 2012 Journey of our own), I've decided to ask 366 questions of meaning, one meaningful question a day, to jump start your search for Why and sustain you throughout the year on your exploration (inspired by Man's Search for Meaning, a book I definitely recommend reading).  How do you get involved?  Well, first you have to ask yourself, "Why do I want to get involved?  Why would I want to get involved?"  If you come up with an answer to that, or if an answer comes to you, then this is how you do it:   

Every day on my Ahimsa Life Coaching facebook page you will find a LogoQuestion and the day of the year to which it corresponds.  Please post your answer under the post.  Simple as that.  Or, check out my ALC Twitter page and answer there!  As you go, I will be tracking your answers and, of course, you should track your answers too - be it in a notebook or Word Doc, etc.  You can take down just the questions, just the answers, or both, as each may bring about a different meaning to and within you.  Come the end of 2012, you will have 366 questions and 366 answers that, by that point, will have brought about great discovery, insight, and meaning to your life. 

And that's not all!  If inspiring and uncovering and inheriting meaning in your life wasn't enough, I'm going to add some more spice and incentive for you to take the plunge in your own life journey this year: Each month, anyone who has answered each of the month's (30-31) LogoQuestions will be entered into a raffle to win prizes, including books, DVDs, free coaching sessions, and other valuable materials for your 2012.    

So jump into your life this year with ALC's LogoQuestions.  I hope you have the most meaningful journey this year. Enjoy.  

All the best and yummiest, 

Steve 
  

Love what you just read? Visit www.ahimsalifecoaching.com to learn more!  We're halfway through the first month of LogoQuestions, so you still have plenty of time to go back, dive into discovering your own meaning, and answer the first 17 LogoQuestions for a chance to win some of the excellent prizes Steve is offering (keep an eye out in the next few days for what this month's rewards are)! 

You can also follow Steve on Twitter @ahimsalifecoach.