One of my wisest teachers taught me that wisdom is experiencing no psychological stress. Our purpose here is to learn and grow and that our journey in life will have peaks and valleys for us to experience the feelings that life is made up of.

As we approach 2011 it is important to reflect on your peaks and Valleys and come to a state of gratefulness for all the lessons you have received in 2010, acknowledge all your teachers and put in place some reminders of where you would like to be stronger in the coming year.

Each year I buy myself a fresh diary and prepare my year with all I need to carry with me. I list my goals, my budget, my values and my purpose and have an ideal default diary to ensure that I am clear and focused about the year ahead. Many people are quite confronted when I show them my key performance indicators for the previous years or my actual banking and expenses recorded each month and yet it is an integral part of leading by example and teaching with integrity.

How clear are you about where you want to be? Take some time out this summer for yourself and complete a fresh irritations inventory, get a snapshot of what you currently do not like in your life in all areas. When it is down on paper it is so much easier to then decide what you do want. You goals are then based on the actions you must do daily to ensure that you are on the correct path to removing those irritations. Ask a buddy to review with you and then sit with your yearly goals a few weeks to make sure they are the right goals for you before you write them in your diary.

Each week as you do your to do list, review the actions from your yearly goals and ensure you give yourself the best chance of achieving them. The more you repeat this process the easier it gets and the more wise you become each year experiencing less and less psychological stress in your daily life.

2011 will happen anyway, will it be all it could be with a little preparation?