The Art of The Fresh Start: How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions for a Lifetime - Softcover

Salsbury, Glenna

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9781558743649: The Art of The Fresh Start: How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions for a Lifetime

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558743642 ISBN 13: 9781558743649

Publisher: Hci, 1995

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Most New Year's resolutions, no matter how well-intented, are doomed to fail for one often overlooked reason: they are incongruent with our dreams and values. In The Art of the Fresh Start, Glenna Salsbury provides you with the tools to uncover the values that guide you, leading you to discover what you want to achieve and how to get there through internal motivation.

Millions of readers marveled at Salsbury's inspiring story of miraculously seeing her dreams become reality, as told in the bestselling book Chicken Soup for the Soul. Here she goes indepth, sharing with you her life-changing, practical approach for tapping into the core being in order to achieve permanent, repeatable and ongoing self-renewal. By following these powerful principles you'll begin immediately to experience the beautiful masterpiece that is your life. Most New Year's resolutions, no matter how well-intented, are doomed to fail for one often overlooked reason: they are incongruent with our dreams and values. In The Art of the Fresh Start, Glenna Salsbury provides you with the tools to uncover the values that guide you, leading you to discover what you want to achieve and how to get there through internal motivation.

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About the Author:

Glenna Salsbury, resides in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and has been giving audiences high-energy presentations focused on enhancing the excellence of others for over two decades. A member of the National Speakers Association, Glenna holds the prestigious Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, and the Council of Peers Award for Excellence (CPAE).

Introduction

Some people might say I have led a storybook life. That doesn�t mean I haven�t had my hellish experiences. I certainly have! And out of those I have learned much about living a life filled with hope, joy, peace and a multitude of Fresh Starts!

One of the most dramatic Fresh Starts came for me on a California freeway when I met the man who was to become my husband. You may have read that story in the New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup for the Soul. (Read that story in chapter one!)

This book has been created for you if you have a desire to find some practical steps for getting your life together from the inside-out. You will find these pages to be revolutionary if any of these descriptions fit you:

You would like to get a new grip on your life.

You have lost your job recently and feel stuck.

You have a secure job, but you are bored.

You are in a relationship that isn�t working.

You lack a sense of purpose or meaning in your life.

You feel somewhat insignificant in the scheme of things.

You have big dreams and a real sense of purpose but experience the frustration of fear, discouragement, etc.

You simply have a desire to live a life of peace and serenity.

Whether you are male or female, a business professional or a homemaker, an entrepreneur or a corporate leader, you are most of all a human being with a life. This book is about your life, how to live more fully with purpose and meaning.

Revelation and Revolution

Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, makes some interesting observations about the need for a Fresh Start in the corporate world. He makes a clear case for the fact that a revolution in thinking is required. Senge uses the Greek word metanoia to describe this revolution:

�[M]etanoia� . . . means a shift of mind. The word has a rich history. For the Greeks, it meant a fundamental shift or change, or more literally transcendence (�meta�―above or beyond, as in �metaphysics�) of mind (�noia,� from the root �nous,� of mind). In the early (Gnostic) Christian tradition, it took on a special meaning of awakening shared intuition and direct knowing of the highest, of God. �Metanoia� was probably the key term of such early Christians as John the Baptist. In the Catholic corpus the word metanoia was eventually translated as �repent.�

To grasp the meaning of �metanoia� is to grasp the deeper meaning of �learning,� for learning also involves a fundamental shift or movement of mind.

Metanoia is not a form of self-help. It is the result of revelation. It produces life lived from a transformed mind, a totally new point of view.

Probably you have experienced the bumpy road of trying to get your life together. You may even have had some short-term success. But eventually failure, discouragement, and even brick walls seem to show up again. (You will see how and why that happens in a later chapter.) In the words of Christ, �The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.� What you need is an entirely new way of seeing your life.

This book is designed to help you uncover the core of who you are meant to be: the real you is spirit. You will be relieved to discover how to live your life from your spirit, from the inside-out.

A Philosophical Moment

You know that New Year�s resolutions almost never produce lasting change. In fact, we all joke about our resolutions, don�t we? Here is an exercise that will be very helpful in preparing you for a Fresh Start!

Take a deep breath, relax and fill in this sentence with all the thoughts that come into your mind.

In my opinion, the reason most New Year�s resolutions do not last is because:

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

and because:

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

any other thoughts?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

I wish I could know exactly what you wrote. It would be invigorating to discuss your thoughts. But, let me share with you what I would have written.

In my opinion, the reason most New Year�s resolutions do not last is because:

resolutions usually are designed to fix or improve a surface problem or concern or habit in our life without looking at the root cause of our dissatisfaction.

and because:

we have so many stresses and preoccupations in our lives that we do not have the energy to sustain our commitments or resolutions.

Any other thoughts?

Most people have never taken the time to discover the foundation of who they are. Resolutions have to be congruent with who we really are in order to bring lasting value and thus be sustained and maintained. This involves revelation.

I find that most people usually are focused on their problems or unhappiness. Many of them think they will be happy as soon as they can get rid of or solve their current problems or change their present condition.

Perhaps you know people who say things like:

As soon as I get married I�ll be happy . . .

As soon as I get out of this marriage I�ll be happy . . .

When I graduate and get a good job I�ll be happy . . .

As soon as I can get a better job I�ll be happy . . .

When I retire I�m really going to be happy . . .

As soon as my children grow up and are on their own . . .

As soon as we can have children then . . .

It�s sad, but very often true, that this becomes the on- going saga of some people�s lives. The Art of the Fresh Start is a book designed to help you discover a life that works today, tomorrow and 20 years from now.

Life-Changing Benefits for You

Many of us read books, listen to speakers and attempt to do what the latest guru suggests as a formula for living. However, like failed New Year�s resolutions, usually we face the same frustrations again.

This book is designed to show you how to live out of your own inner sense of wholeness. There are four major, life-long benefits for you hidden in these pages. They are:

Benefit One: You will learn how to determine the unique person you are.
Benefit Two: You will gain the principles and skills to access the real you, who you are in your spirit.
Benefit Three: You will become one of those rare people who understands your uniqueness and your purpose. You will be equipped to make resolutions, choices, decisions and commitments that will endure because they spring from the real you.
Benefit Four: You will find the energy to sustain your commitments because they are congruent with the awesome uniqueness with which you have been created.

Come with me on the journey. This is the beginning of a lifetime full to the brim with renewing Fresh Starts for you.

(c)1995. All rights reserved. Reprinted from The Art of The Fresh Start by Glenna Salsbury. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.

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