Today’s my birthday.  I tend to write posts for my blog a little in advance, but I just couldn’t come up with anything in the last two weeks for this day.  I figured it was one of those things that had to be written in the moment.  Turns out, I was right.  Now that I’m here, I know exactly what to say.

It strikes me as odd how much time we spend looking backwards in our lives.  At the end of a year, we either celebrate a great year gone by or say how glad we are that the last year is over (usually with some recounting of all the horrors we’ve endured).  I hear some people talk more about what they’ve done or moments from their pasts more than they talk about what they do now, where they’re going, what they’re creating today.

Even on birthdays, what is it we say?  In my case, today, the usual thing to say would be “I am 37 years old today.” As in, I have lived for 37 years.  I have survived 37 years.  This is the 37th time this date has come around.

In other words, it is traditional for me to mark my birthday by focusing on the end of the PREVIOUS YEAR.

What if we were to change that up?  What if we were to say, “I am beginning my 38th year today”… that’s a significant difference in tone, isnt’ it?  Instead of a culmination, a notch on the tree, a survival stat, our birthday becomes a gateway into consciously creating our next year of life.

Yes, it means you have to use a higher number.  But what does that number really mean?  Am I really 38 years old today because I say I am beginning my 38th year?  No… technically, I’m not even finished with my first day of my 38th year!  That is an incredibly FREEING realization to have, and vital to conscious creation of the life you want to have.

If I am focused on being 37 years old, first of all, my 37th year is done.  Gone.  Secondly, I have to use the word ‘old’, which has never described me, and I doubt ever will.  But if I am focused on being at the beginning of my 38th year, and that I am going to make my 38th year wonderful, then what do you think my chances are of looking back this time next year, when that little piece of paper says I’m 38, and smiling?

I’d say my chances are a lot higher that those of someone looking backwards, fixed on what they’ve survived instead of what they are creating.

If you think you can handle being “a year older than you actually are” all year long, then I challenge you to try it when your birthday rolls around.  Try creating your upcoming year of life, from your birthday onward, and see if it doesn’t bring you more of what you wish and dream for than blowing out candles on a cake.

Besides, if we weren’t meant to be focused on that upcoming year, why do we put an extra candle on the cake for “one to grow on”?

Photo by Me!  My staff at work brought me this cute cupcake for my birthday this morning.  I thought it was soooo appropriate for the goals I’ve been working so hard on this year.  The whole morning has been like that — a nod from the Universe that I am doing well and things are unfolding as they should.