Gong Hay Fat Choy!!! Happy Chinese New Year and Welcome to the Year of the Ox.

It’s the year 4707 or 4706 on the Chinese calendar for those who are counting. Humans have been around for about 10,000 years and China has had a continuous culture and recorded history for half of that time. Ten thousand years may be a long time for us humans, but it is a very brief moment in time for planet Earth. Still, time is relative and the true measurement of time is what you are going to do with the remaining time that you have in your life.

Whether you are using the western calendar or the Chinese calendar system to measure the passage of time, the new year represents a new beginning. It’s out with the old and in with the new. But what is the new? Are we seeking to do new things and to have new experiences, or are we just seeking to just change the facade and to have the same experiences over and over again? What is real change?

You begin to change from the day you are conceived, to the day you were born and up until the day you die. You continue to change emotionally, mentally and physically throughout your life. You change your clothing and eating habits with the seasons and as you grow older. Nothing remains the same forever, no matter how you try to keep everything the same. It is one of the Universal Truths that everything is in a constant state of change.

The new year offers a good time to reflect upon your life experiences for the past year and to decide whether you wish to continue to have the same experiences or to change and have new experiences. If you are content with the experiences that you have be having for the past year and wish to experience more of the same, then you just continue to do whatever it is that you have been doing. However, if you wish to have new experiences, then the beginning of the new year is an excellent time for a new beginning and to do something different. Changing your experiences means first taking responsibility for your life. With responsibility comes control. It’s your life and only you have the power to change your life experiences.

So what are the things that you want to accomplish or to experience before the end of 2009 or the end of the Year of the Ox? Why do you want to accomplish [specifically] these things and not others? Are the reasons you have given for yourself or for others? What is it that you wish to manifest before the end of the year?

Since nothing can be accomplished without your active participation, what are the things that you need to do in order to achieve your goals by the end of the year. Create a time line for when each of the activities have to be completed and get to work. Start with the first one and then go to the next and then the next.

The Chinese have an ancient saying that “a thousand li (i.e., mile) journey begins with the first step.” To truly change your life experiences, you have to take the first step and then the next step, and so on and so forth. Real change does not come with the desire to change, but with the determination and fortitude to do whatever is necessary to make real change. The process is taking each step, one after another, in a constant and timely fashion until you reach your final destination.