January has arrived full of a myriad of resolutions set by hopeful people all over the globe. Did you create a list of one or more New Year's resolutions for yourself? What do you believe the chances are you will be successful with your goals? Are any of your resolutions the same as last year? Some look at repeat resolutions as having little expectation of happening. These repeat goals however hold valuable information in relation to manifesting other aspects of your life you desire.

We've been exploring how to manifest what you dream of today. Often the goals we set for the New Year relate to our day-to-day behaviors and habits such as health and fitness improvements, smoking and financial savings plans. The important question to ask yourself is what kinds of activities or relationships did you engage in which supported the successful realization of your resolutions in the past. Seeing how your day-to-day activities and relationships relate to your goals provides you with data you can analyze to make the necessary changes to more easily achieve success today. The steps you take within your environment to help you reach those goals for the New Year are the same steps you must take to manifest what you desire on a large scale for your life. The opinions you hold regarding life, events and the expected current of your life, can either create infinite possibilities for what you want to develop or narrow the opening so much very little is able to flow to you.

Last month we discussed the value of taking time to reflect and journal about the energy you put forth and conversely attract to determine how your attitude towards you and your life relates to what you desire to create for yourself. In other words, what may need to change or evolve within you to transform you into a magnet for optimum energy so you can bring your desired dreams or goals into reality? With a better attitude and greater expectations, learning how to direct your energy is another essential step in manifesting what you desire.

It is common for us to seek out foods, enzymes and supplements that will increase our energy levels, helping us to produce more and perform better. Consequently, it is equally important to be aware of how you focus the increased energy you possess. Think of your vehicle and yourself. The power of your vehicle's engine will make your vehicle move just as energy helps you move. Once in drive the vehicle will go, however, you must steer your vehicle in order to get to where you desire to go. Without directing the course of your vehicle, you will end up some place you did not intend to be or perhaps even crash. Similarly, in life you must direct your own energy in order to create the results you want and reach the places you desire to go. Since life is a continuous journey, each of our goals becomes another destination along our journey. Sometimes we lose sight of having direction thus experiencing our own crash.

Every year carmakers increase the power and speed of new models, which requires more responsibility on the part of the driver in handling the vehicle. Similarly, with life moving faster around us we must be aware of whether it's happening to us or are we directing ourselves to participate with it. There is another important aspect that affects how well we can direct our vehicles, the filters. Just as the filters in our automobiles must be kept clean to enhance their performance, each of us has our own internal filter, which influences how we direct our energy outward. If you check your filter often to clean it out, you will enjoy more focus and accuracy as you direct your power toward what you desire. The energy we possess and create runs through this filter becoming more powerful and focused or disempowering and misdirected in the process.

So where is this filter and how do you check it or clean it? Ask yourself what themes or general beliefs you have for your life presently. The core beliefs you hold for your life serve as your filter. Do they empower you and support your growth and success or do they derive from past disappointments and false insecurities?

Your energy directs outward after it runs through the inner filter you possess for your life. If you believe you truly deserve what you desire and it's possible, your filter is looking good. If on the other hand for example you desire to make a career change and believe you are not smart enough, can't do it or need someone else's permission to do it, then the work you do to create it may not always be directed into the optimal channels to manifest it. Self-love maximizes the potential for a clean filter.

In addition, as we experience and process the vicissitudes of life, holding onto the lessons we learn while letting go of what doesn't serve us in moving forward, helps us maintain a healthy, clean filter. Keep in mind many people with a negative self-image create aspects they desire. On the other hand, my coaching clients consult with me to develop the whole lifestyle package, which includes joy, inner peace and self-love along with prosperous relationship/career realizations. The greatest amount of financial success or fame cannot mask an unclean filter. By cleaning your filter, you can thoroughly enjoy everything you create without harboring residual negative thoughts about yourself or fears about your future.

For a greater understanding of why you may be where you are today, take a glance at your past; the people you have attracted into romantic relationships and friendships, jobs you've held, and places you moved to. How do these actual experiences from your past correlate to the goals or dreams you had for yourself at those times? Create a map for yourself that illustrates how one led to another or how they were intertwined. Next, think about the themes that may have been prevalent in your life which inspired or resulted in those choices and experiences.

I entered college with a pre-existing theme of feeling I didn't belong. After being raped, I eventually left college unable to cope with the depression that followed. The theme for my life then became I am broken and tainted. Without my degree, I'll have to prove myself so people believe I have value. I probably can't be successful on my own. With this theme as my internal filter, I engaged in employment opportunities with people who took advantage of my lack of self worth. I began a practice of overworking to prove myself, oblivious that those I worked for were well aware of my value and enjoyed benefiting from my self-sacrificing work habits. I possessed energy and positive desire to be successful; however once it ran through my filter, the energy was always directed toward a situation that supported my theme of being a workhorse for somebody else.

A glance into the past can reveal valuable clues and provide increased clarity in the present. Remember the purpose for this reflection is simply to gather useful information and leave the rest behind. By grasping how my old themes affected my choices and hence, my results, I was able to understand my role in each situation. It liberated me from feeling helpless or victimized while giving me the power to tackle these negative beliefs head on, develop self-love and create new themes from my healing which support growth and victory. Be sure there are no negative beliefs hiding inside you thwarting your ability to direct your energy toward what you deserve and desire!

Next month we will explore some of the extraordinary gifts that reside within your desires along with how recognizing them can play a significant role in helping you manifest them. Happy New Year! May you choose to make 2006 an amazing year for you!