Start Your 2024 Journey with Insightful Goal Reflections

by Dr. Monica Coronel

Here are valuable reflections to make about your goals for 2024

On December 31, 2023, I traveled the whole day after spending Christmas with my son. While in between flights, I made a few attempts to create spaces of silence and meditation, and I kept asking myself, what are my goals, objectives, and purpose for 2024.?

I kept trying to write it down, and then I realized that I was mainly struggling because I was doing it from my rational mind, so during the last part of the trip, I decided to meditate and connect with my heart center and ask for guidance. I immediately felt lighter, more cheerful, and enthusiastic about evaluating my goals. It was then that I realized that I had spent the whole day struggling to develop a list of goals and objectives based on an old belief that I did not want to keep reinforcing during 2024: you must be in control of your life. The old pattern of self-demand was in action and driving my intention, which is why I felt so uncomfortable all day.

I was very excited about the end and beginning of a new year, and I know that most of us do, and we should. After all, we have walked a path for twelve months and had many experiences that taught us how to be more evolved human beings, which is a great reason to celebrate and feel enthusiastic about. Additionally, the idea of a new beginning is exciting and promising; we, human beings, are innately curious and adventurous.

I got home around 8:00 pm and still needed a list of goals, dreams, and desires for 2024. At home, I went to my meditation chair and realized that what was still driving my intention was the rational mind and the conditioning of a world that values being in charge, so I chose not to write a list. I have learned that self-mastery is the greatest challenge in life. I spent around 30 minutes meditating, breathing, tapping, and connecting with my conscious being, and I felt at peace.

Traditions are essential to these celebrations, and many cultures treasure the opportunity to set new goals, objectives, desires, wants, and purposes for a new year. In our culture, it is a must if we want to be successful since mentality is a principle that determines the path to follow. It is part of a mental frame that sustains beliefs and standards that work according to those who “have achieved it.” We rarely consider that every person is unique, and each person’s experience is aligned with their mentality, which is not ours. For example, my view on success concerns my excitement and passion for what I do for a living, which must allow me to serve others. It is not about escalating positions in an organization anymore.

While going through my inner struggle, I realized the importance of highlighting a few points I’d like to share.

Re-evaluate your beliefs concerning success, well-being, and happiness.

  • I do it in connection with my heart’s wisdom and consciousness, which I try to awaken every day.
  • What beliefs about happiness, success, and well-being no longer serve me?

     I have found that asking myself life’s existential questions brings me inspiration and reminds me that I am more than a logical mind:

A.  Who am I?

B.  What is my purpose in life?

Regarding goals, objectives, and purpose:

  • What goals and objectives support my life’s purpose?
  • What daily habits do I practice that support my goals and objectives?
  • What beliefs about those goals and objectives should I re-evaluate?
  • How do my goals and objectives contribute to the evolution of this planet and humanity?
  • Am I ready to find a way to serve others?
  • How can I serve humanity?

Going to the next level of consciousness:

  • Am I open to practicing self-awareness daily?
  • Am I aware of the benefits of self-reflection, self-inquiry, and self-talk?
  • How well do I know myself: abilities, virtues, strengths, areas of improvement, a clear purpose, etc?
  • Am I equipped to handle, channel, and direct my emotions to maintain my cognitive abilities to their maximum potential?
  • What is my mind’s tendency, and how does it support my goals and dreams?
  • Am I self-disciplined?
  • Do I have a daily practice that allows me to live in my presence and offer my company to my partner, family, colleagues, clients, and other human beings?
  • How satisfied do I feel with my current life situation?
  • What competencies and abilities do I need to develop, practice, and cultivate to live a fulfilling life and be an agent of evolution?

I do not want to overwhelm you, but I do want to stir you up a bit because it is time that more and more people live consciously, so we as humanity evolve. 2024 is the year of expansion; unlimited possibilities are available to us, but I ask myself, how could we, as limited minds, access unlimited possibilities?

I have been meditating for over 15 years, and I have dedicated my life to research and study, but primarily practice everything I share, and my daily practice has changed how I perceive my life. I feel more at peace, content, and self-confident than before, and based on my research and constant observation, I know it is thanks to my new habits, which are the product of my daily self-awareness practice. Mindfulness, meditation, self-reflection, self-inquiry, and self-awareness are essential to me.

The questions I share with you are intended to have your attention because we can no longer keep going in life in automatic pilot. We must regain our personal power, so we become active agents of evolution and transcendence. It is the time to put to work all we have in us, to be part of a new life where we make decisions based on a clear life purpose that involves serving others that comes from a source of wisdom and unconditional love versus survival. If you re-read the questions above and contrast those with the following questions, you will see and hopefully feel a huge abyss among them, and what makes the big difference is the intention behind them.

Consider these questions and contrast them with some of the other questions I shared above:

  • How much more money can I gain?
  • How can I get a raise faster?
  • What brings me a sense of security and safety?

How do you feel when you ask yourself the questions above and these questions? Do you think is the difference in the level of intention and impact on the world.?

My intention is to offer you another perspective on success, happiness, well-being, and setting goals and objectives because, thank you to my inner work, I know that one of the most relevant aspects of authentic success and well-being is, I have discovered, a daily practice that helps us awaken something more profound, the connection with our soul that I have been able to establish.

I am not saying that our rational mind is an obstacle to our success; I am saying that if we only rely on the rational mind as we have been led to believe, we will be very disappointed. We might achieve, but I know that at some point in life, we will ask ourselves, is this all there is? As Caroline Myss writes, “Life is a journey of practicing consciousness, not perfecting it.”

If you are ready to start a daily practice, try this:

  • Set 3 alarms on your cell phone: early in the morning before you start your day, midday, and before going to sleep.
  • As soon as the alarm goes off, stop what you are doing. The excuse that “it is impossible, I am too busy” is simply a resistance you must overcome if you genuinely want to change your life.
  • After you stop, take a deep breath. Feel the inhalation, feel the exhalation, and connect with your body. Ideally, close your eyes or rest them at a point in front of you.
  • Ask yourself – ideally out loud:

         1 Minute of Self-Reflection by Dr. Monica Coronel:

          What emotions are present? Mentally scan your body and name what you recognize in your body: tense jaw, contracted neck/shoulders, a feeling of carrying the world   on your shoulders, etc.

          What feelings are present? I see…. (Anger, frustration, irritability, doubt, confusion, joy, anxiety, etc.

          What thoughts/mental narrative is present?

My mind is telling me: the world is upside down, this is overwhelming, I can’t deal with this, this is too much…

Ask yourself any of these six questions:

1. Why am I giving power to these thoughts?

2. Who could I be without believing these narratives?

3. Where in my body do I feel these emotions?

4. Why do I believe these thoughts?

5. What is wrong with this present moment?

6. Are these thoughts true without any doubt?

  • Breathe and allow yourself to feel your emotions in your body. It is not about bypassing emotions/feelings. On the contrary, it is about allowing ourselves to learn to feel and let go with conscious self-regulation.
  • Talk to yourself: Now that I am aware I can handle it or that I am aware that I am not my emotions/feelings/thoughts, I can des-identify from them and make clear and more conscious decisions/judgments/behaviors.

As you practice 1 Minute of Self-Reflection, you will start to identify your habits, beliefs, tendencies/patterns, and now you can choose instead of going on autopilot. This is stepping in your self-power and one of the most powerful goals for 2024!

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