As a life coach I always try to think life in terms of choices and also encourage my clients to do likewise—to watch for the differences in their energy when they have to do something and when they choose to. I believe that, in life, everything loops around us and we always loop back to our default or what instinctually we are prone to do, unless we have the intention to change outcomes or we are not happy with ourselves. 

I am writing this blog post as I prepare for the Jewish New Year. To celebrate the beginning of the New Year, we have a circular braided bread called challah at the dinner table. The challah during this holiday has to be round.  The reason of the circular shape is because of many interpretations, but, in short, the round shape resembles continuity, the spiral of ever-upward progress our decisions play a key role in.

Like challah, a whole year loops in a cyclical motion. Every year we go through the same seasons and almost the same celebrations. The question I’d like to ask—whether you observe the Jewish holidays or not—is if you’d like your cyclical motion of life to repeat itself again—or, are there changes you’d like to make? Beyond the religious holiday, in life we always can “choose to reset.”

As we all know, this is a very peculiar year, 2020. Covid-19 has invaded our thoughts with worry and uncertainty. Many of our narratives have shifted, and awareness of the bigger picture has also been difficult to achieve. It is difficult to adapt to a new norm and there are mixed feelings with a resistance component within. Nevertheless, our decisions matter—and we can still reset.

This might be the very time of the year to choose to make new choices. It is also the time of year to dream and to grow and to reassess what is next. I’d like to ask you, are you happy? Do you feel unfulfilled? What is missing in your life? What do you love? What can you create in the world? I feel we all have a big baggage of emotions right now because a year ago we would have never imaged of the reality the entire world has gone through. If you don’t feel 100 percent this year, know you are not alone. If we choose to start moving forward, and find resolutions, we can choose to go a bit deeper and to challenge our default mode.

Our paradigms, like challah and the years of our life, also loop around. The reason we pursue certain goals—our purpose—is intrinsically connected, and defined, by our story or paradigm—what instinctively we are prone to do. Neglecting our paradigm is on par with denying our story—the place we come from, the “why” we are the way we are.

We are here today, the way we are, because of our story and we desire to be in a certain place tomorrow because of the way we are now—because of our ingrained intention and drive. That motivation is linked to the perspective we operate from. By challenging our default paradigms, with awareness and acceptance of our story, we will be able to authentically shift our outlook. This opens the door to new possibilities. However, when we shift our outlook please keep me in mind we always open the door to new prospects. If perception is reality, then new perceptions lead to new modes of living.

By shifting our paradigm we leave the comfortable seat of how we’ve always viewed things and look to them with a fresh take. By honoring and applying our set of values, our story, all the while challenging our default with a new perspective, we allow ourselves to tune into another frequency. By tuning into this new frequency, consciously, will enable us to us see new paths, re-evaluate courses of action, and reassess goals—strategize if needed!

As this New Year begins, please remember that our choices and level of awareness are important keys to changing our life. Also, like the circle of life, our paradigms, including our shifted ones, will always show us a cyclical sequence. We always grow and with growth there is change. The power is in all of us, individually, every year and every moment, to choose to reset. . . and direct ourselves to a new reality that only we are able to create.