“A New Year – Renewing our Commitment to Serve”

Every New Year seems to bring with it a new wave of possibilities, planning and great expectations. We usually face a barrage of advertising and campaigns encouraging us to loose weight, stop smoking, stop drinking and start the year afresh by setting new goals which should help us better ourselves.

There is nothing wrong with these goals, but sometimes these outside influences can result in disappointment and people feel deflated. So how do we decide on what goals or aspirations to set without it resulting in us beating ourselves up afterwards because we didn’t accomplish them or achieve what others wanted from us?

Most of us go through life viewing our experiences as isolated, unrelated events. We catalogue these occurrences as such but don’t use them as opportunities for learning.  One of our greatest possibilities for growth and change is in reflecting on the lessons of not only the past year but, also, previous ones. The ability to reflect and learn is a key factor in building inner strength and finding success. By using experiences as learning opportunities, this helps us to build a strong mind-set. However, we have a choice in how we reflect on our past and we can choose to be positive because, when we reflect on the past with a positive attitude, we grow, learn, and gain energy for the future. “Failures” are simply experiments with endings we did not expect.

In the new Spring 2018 Bulletin Magazine “A New Year – Renewing our Commitment to Serve”, are many articles and experiences from members who give their time to serve those less fortunate. And yes, many will also have had bad experiences but this is when we need to reflect and renew our commitment. It is important for us to remember the faces of those who have smiled back at us, or stretched out their hand looking for friendship, and acknowledge that we played a part in making that person’s life a little bit better. We also need to know that these experiences are a two-way exchange because you can feel your heart well up when you are part of this type of interaction with another human being. As you read through the spring edition, we hope it will help each of us to reflect on our positive achievements, assess where we need to grow, and renew our commitment to serve others.