I’m sure that many of you can relate that you become reflective when your birthday arrives. I recently celebrated a birthday and one of the things that I always do is give thanks for all of my blessings. Birthdays are a wonderful opportunity to reflect, give thanks for our blessings and enjoy time with people who are important to us.

Birthdays, are also an excellent time to celebrate your accomplishments so far in life and take stock of where you are in terms of important goals. The key word is CELEBRATE! Celebrate what you have accomplished in your life. Those accomplishments could be with your family, your career, your volunteer work, your faith or just simply celebrate who you are at this point in time.

When reflecting on goals (and working hard to achieve them) the finish line can seem so far off that you may start to feel discouraged. Don’t get caught up into that comparative analysis mode where you are keeping score against other people. We all know that is a losing game.

During important milestones like birthdays when you reflect on goals that you have yet to achieve, you may think disempowering thoughts. Some of those thoughts might be: I’m too old, I’m too young, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the talent, I don’t have the time to achieve this goal. The list could go on. When thoughts like these occur, remember to be gentle with yourself. Realize that it is necessary to learn how to cultivate your inner resources so that you can overcome disempowering thoughts and move towards inspired action.

Your inner resources could include your spirituality, your courage, your kindness and your compassion among many things. In order to do this, you will often need time to reflect, meditate or pray to ensure that you are focusing in on the right priorities and goals in your life. When you take the time to get silent and go inward to listen to your intuition you will find that the Divine will guide you to the answers that you need. You DO have the gifts, talents and tools to accomplish your goals.

When you face challenges or feel discouraged, learning to call on the Divine to give you the strength you need is a power that you should never forget that you have. It is a power that we all have at our disposal seven days a week, 24 hours a day. The Divine will always support us, helping us move towards goals that are for our highest good. Next time a birthday, anniversary or milestone occurs and you find yourself reflecting on what you have yet to achieve, consider a different approach. Instead, celebrate your life, count your blessings, give thanks and trust that your goals (and everything else!) are in the palm of the Divine’s hands.

As published in Sibyl Magazine: For the Spirit and Soul of a Woman (March 2016 issue)