The New Year is a time for reflection and renewal. It is a time to look back at our mistakes and missed goals as well as our accomplishments. The New Year gives us the opportunity to evaluate the good and the bad, learn from it, and move on. Even more important, the beginning of a new calendar year is a time of renewed energy. New goals are set, missed goals are reset.

This year Your Best Image has set some new goals too. We have some exciting changes to our website and our business planned for 2007. We are going to remain dedicated to helping you develop your personal best, one step at a time, using common sense strategies everyone can accomplish.

A Peek At 2007 Topics
We have some exciting information to share in upcoming issues:

Makeup trends and techniques

The new corporate look

Corporate casual

Effective email image

Your image on the internet

Corporate comfortable

The latest advances in skin care

We feel very strongly about setting and keeping goals. We would be remiss if we did not talk about goal keeping to start the new year.

Goals for 2007: Have you set them? Have you written them down? Do they have a date of completion written next to them?

It is amazing what happens when you write down your goals and look at them every day. There is no better way to keep focused, on track and moving in the right direction. Remember, a goal is just a wish until you have documented it in writing and put a date on it.

Your goals may include spiritual, health, physical, career, financial, personal and professional. Know your one-year, five year, and lifetime goals. Develop a daily, weekly, monthly plan to achieve then. Review your goals daily.

Ask yourself daily: What will I do today to achieve my goals?
What will I complete this week to help achieve my goals?
By the end of this year what goals will I have achieved?

Rewards are also an important part of goal setting. What do you want? What are the results of your diligent efforts? Set some rewards for a goal met and achieved. It can be as simple as an afternoon at the beach, a new pair of shoes, or as big as a two-week vacation or a new car. Be sure your rewards are commensurate with the goal achieved. You would not want to reward yourself with a new car then have payments you cannot meet or a fattening meal for loosing just a few pounds.

Look in your closet; do you wear 20% of the clothes in your closet 80% of the time? Practice the Feng Shui theory for eliminating stress from your life by reducing the clutter of unworn clothing in your closet. Keep only what you can wear now. Don’t make the mistake of hanging on to it because “I am going to fit into it some day” or “I paid a lot of money for that” or “I loved that outfit, wish it was still in style”. Ask yourself did I wear this at all last season? If the answer is no, you most likely will not wear it again next season, and it’s time to let it go. If it is too valuable or cherished to throw away, consider donating it to charity, giving it to a friend or family member or selling it at a consignment shop or yard sale. Be sure your donations are in style, clean, and shows no signs of wear and tear.

Here is a tip to know if you are wearing your wardrobe. Hang all your clothes hangers in the opposite direction of what you typically do. After you have worn an item, turn the hanger to the direction you prefer. At the end of the season look at the hangers and discard any pieces that the hangers are still hanging in the wrong direction.

'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number! When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber).

I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared; The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt And prepared once again to do battle with dirt---

I said to myself, as I only can "You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"

So--away with the last of the sour cream dip, Get rid of the fruitcake, every cracker and chip

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished "Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie--not even a lick. I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie, I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore--- But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot. Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

Copyright 2007 Your Best Image, Personal Image development. All rights reserved.

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