Marvin sILVER

 Conquering the New Year
By Panney Wei, C.Ht.
CEO, See the Way Consulting
www.panneywei.com

Happy Lunar New Year! This year is the year of the Fire Monkey which means it’s going to be a year of great movement, change, and hopefully like the monkey, full of surprises and a plethora of positivity that will help boost you the next level! To take advantage of this year, make lasting change, and get it started on the right track, here are some tips from my own life to inspire you to make this one of your best years yet! Part of my work as a hypnotherapist/executive life coach and spiritual teacher is to pass on whatever wisdom I’ve gained in my life experience so that it may benefit future generations. I am honored to be able to do this through this film and truly hope it can inspire and give you the courage to reach your dreams, your goals big or small, and achieve the life you’ve always imagined for yourself, your family, and future generations, and in time, pay it forward as well.  

Tip #1: Face your Challenges
When you’re faced with formidable obstacles and it seems like life has crashed down all around you, or you feel weak, and cannot see the light or breakthrough, remember that deep inside you, everyone has hidden reserves of energy, strength, and the determination to get through anything in your path. We are all faced with challenges in our life. Challenges exist because if we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t appreciate the good times, come to know the difference, and find the balance. I’m grateful for all the challenges in my life.  They have made me stronger, wiser, and a deeper and better human being. When I was in my late teens, I struggled with the life-threatening illness, bulimia. It was triggered by having to quit my skating career after skating for over eleven years competitively. It was my passion having devoted so much of my life to it, but my parents wanted me to forge a different path and so being under their roof and a minor and respecting and honoring their wishes, I had to comply. Because of the disappointment and other factors in my environment at the time, I fell into a depression, experiencing a loss of identity and self, and it was one of the darkest periods of my life. The depression triggered the illness that led to a near death experience that changed my life forever. This was a major challenge to overcome. The only way I could over come it was to change my circumstances, changing my mindset into one that was positive and one of strength, and using the power of my mind and complete belief in myself to scale these challenges and get my life to where I want it to be. It was probably the biggest ordeal I had to overcome at that point in my life. I took all of the wisdom and experience I gained from being a competitive figure skater and applied it to overcoming my illness, heal myself, and coming out a champion.  One of the tools I used was the power of my mind with hypnosis and meditation which allowed me to change the way I felt about myself, change my internal chemistry and physiology and make better choices in living a healthier, dynamic life. It took time, resilience, patience, and taking each day at a time to overcome my illness, but I plugged away at it each day until I reached my goal. This is what I want for you as well. Anytime you are faced with a challenge, the best thing to do is to set the goal in your mind, and apply every amount of fortitude each and every day to your goal. If it is a difficult challenge, it’s important to find teachers, hypnotherapists, therapists, mentors, or wisdom from friends, books, and anything that you can get your hands on to help you reach your goal. Go all in because you are worth it! Even though you must face and experience the challenge alone, you are not without guidance. There is help all around you if you look for it. I promise that over time, you will inevitably reach your goal. What has worked for me as I travel and advance in different areas in my life whether it’s personal or professional is to have a champion mindset. I tell myself I can accomplish anything I set my mind to, and that way, I’m able to face any obstacle with the courage and the motivation needed to transform any negative situation into a positive.

Tip #2: Dig Deeper, Recharge, and Set a Vision
The new year is a good time to dig deeper into the most important areas of your life especially the areas that you feel that have been lacking or not been given the right amount of time, energy, and care into. Whatever you put your mind, focus, and energy into, is where you’ll get the most results. What’s worked for me is setting a vision for the future.  Everything in life happens in moments and phases, seasons and reasons, and timing is a big part of it. But life is also being prepared for when the opportunities show up and give you an opening to boost up your life. You have to be ready for the opportunities. If you set a vision for yourself about what you want to achieve in the future, then you’ll plant a seed in your subconscious mind to know where you’re going and take steps to achieve it. So often people get caught in the rat race of working day in and day out but often forget to check in with themselves to make sure that what you’re doing every day and spending time on has meaning in your life. That’s why taking a moment to recharge is so important. Part of setting a vision for yourself is to allow yourself first to take a moment to regroup and do some self-reflection on the status of your life. Is your personal life to your satisfaction? Are you experiencing some career dissatisfaction or remorse or regret in any area of your life? Is there something missing in your life in any area? The areas that I focus on are areas in my life that add value, meaning, or purpose to my life. Those are: family, professional life, personal life (friendship, health, & community), and mentorship. At different phases in your life, these areas might shift. Perhaps you’re getting married, making a change to your personal life, wanting to date again or start a family, then the categories of your personal life or family will require more attention. If you’re starting a new job or changing career direction, then the area of your professional life will require more effort or attention. You get the picture. Take a moment to do some self-reflection and dig deep within your soul to see what makes you happy, what areas need extra work, love, and attention, and answer those questions I’ve shared here and anything else your heart desires. Meditation helps, journaling, and doing some goal-setting exercises. It’s in those quiet moments of reflection that inspiration hits. After taking time to recharge and do some self-reflection, the next step is to create a vision for the future. This can be simply what you’d like to accomplish 1, 5, 10, 15 years or more from now.  Set a trajectory for the year and an image of what it looks like, and write down your goals. In my experience as a hypnotherapist, research shows that planting a seed in your subconscious mind about the goals you want to reach both in the form of an image and feeling is most instrumental in goal-setting and helping you attain your goals. As I’ve learned being a former athlete, athletes use this technique for excellence in sports performance, and it’s the same technique you can apply to any dream or goal you want to achieve in life. What I’m teaching you here is that whatever your mind can see and believe, you will achieve. So go deep, set a goal, visualize it, and then achieve it!

Tip #3: Figure Out What You’re Passionate about
Shouldn’t everything you do in your life be worth it, worth your time, energy, focus, attention. Time is precious and if you haven’t felt excited or enthusiastic about your life, now is the time to change it! It’s the New Year and the lunar new year of the fire monkey. The element of fire in Chinese culture represents passion, energy, movement, and the fire monkey also represents ambition, adventure, and change. So keep that in mind as you re-focus your life and your goals. Think about your passions, hobbies, and things or causes that make you feel fulfilled and bring you satisfaction or joy. A meaningful life is a life well lived and one with a purpose. Take the time to figure out what you’re passionate about. It can be an organization you’d like to be a part of and contribute to, a cause you’re passionate about or believe in, a hobby or subject you enjoy, or a career or industry you’ve always wanted to embark on. You deserve to be happy and figuring out what you are excited about, gives your spirit energy, and your heart joy are some keys to figuring out what you’re passionate about. You don’t have to do it for a living, but you do have to feel alive, so engage in things and opportunities that add value to your life. Maybe it’s making a difference in another person’s life, lending to a cause you believe in, or balancing your work life with hobbies that nurture other parts of your personality. What works for me is making sure that I don’t take my time for granted. Time is a luxury and time is limited. At the age of 22, overcoming my life threatening illness and surviving my near death experience taught me the value of time, of living up to my potential, the importance of figuring out my life purpose and passion, and having the courage to do it. There is a quote I’d like to share that sums up what I feel about living one’s life at this moment, “No matter what one does, regardless of failure or success, the experience is a form of success in itself.” Life is about trying new things, figuring out what you’re passionate about, and doing your passion. If it doesn’t work out, you can always go back to what you were doing before. The experience is the gift; the journey is the destination, and the most important thing to do is to try new things and do things that give you LIFE, not take away from it. Now go for it!

Tip #4: Don’t Waste Time
We’ve talked about filling your life with passion and purpose because time is limited. When I had my near death experience with my life threatening illness at age 20, I realized that time waits for no one, and your life is precious. When you also have children and you’re with them day in and day out like I am with my daughter and working with children, it really puts things in perspective on how fast time flies. Your youth is an asset. The sooner you can realize that and take control of your life and use time and your youth on your side, the better off you’ll be in the long run. It’s just plain simple facts. We live in a linear reality where day-by-day, time goes by, and death does not escape anyone. I learned that the hard way. It was through my illness and near death experience that I learned this valuable lesson. I chose life, and decided to not waste a minute living my life for someone else, or someone else’s dreams or expectations of me. That was one of the many gifts of overcoming my illness as well. So I would love to impart that wisdom to you. When you’re young, you have more time to cultivate your goals and make things happen. Everyone has dreams in their heart but many people lack the courage to act upon them. I encourage you to rise up and be a leader, be an inspiration and an example to others by acting on your dreams, desires, and goals. That kind of visionary action is inspiring. Ambition in its purest form and achieving goals with integrity, passion, hard work, and patience is the kind of life my family and I live. I see it when my husband produces his films and takes projects from beginning to end, building people, his company, their brands, etc., and working on the many projects present in his life. He recently produced the films Looper, Linsanity about NBA basketball player Jeremy Lin, Sneakerheadz, and his company is putting out the upcoming Snowden this year. Some projects take years to develop but he works on them each and every day, and I admire that kind of resilience and passion. He never wastes a minute in his life. He’s either nurturing his career or nurturing the people in his life.
I want all of you to live a life of passion so that when you wake up, you’re excited about achieving your goals and not wasting a minute! Having dreams is living a life of excellence and living up to your potential. There is nothing in your life that you can’t achieve without the power of your mind and belief in yourself. You might have many naysayers along the way, but as I mentioned before, it’s better to act on your dreams than to be a person who just daydreams and lives a life of regret. The experience and the journey is the goal in the end. No experience is ever wasted. The only thing you can ever waste is the time waiting for things to come to pass. The world needs people with grit, drive, vision, and love for what they do, and the depth of your dream often fuels the potential for your future. Don’t waste time. Take one day at a time to plug away at your goals. Break down your dream into baby steps that are achievable, and give it your attention each and every day.  Just like a baby does when they’re trying to walk. Or from my experience as a figure skater, whenever I wanted to accomplish a new jump, a new spin, or a new routine, I would break it down into pieces and practice every day until it became muscle memory and a part of me and easy. If you don’t waste time worrying about your goals, but instead, plug away at them each and every day, breaking the steps down little by little, you’ll find that you’ll reach your goal sooner than you think! You can do it! Think about the athlete that has dreams to compete in the Olympics. Their attitude is go big or go home! That’s how I view my life and hope you do too.

Tip #5: Fill your Life with People You Care About and Are Worthy of Your Time
There are many steps in the journey of life as you climb up towards your goals. Nobody gets to the top without some assistance or encouragement from others. The climb can sometimes be tedious and treacherous. This applies to both your personal and professional lives.  There will be people who suck the life and energy out of you, and those who add value to your life. In order to maximize your time and potential, it’s best to surround yourself with people who are worthy of your time. These people are the ones who love you, support you, nurture you, elevate you, and raise you up. They believe in you or learn from you, or you learn from them. They are your mentors, your dearest friends, your trustworthy partners, the most intimate or loyal members of your family, and they are your teachers. If there’s anyone in your life that makes you feel less than yourself and less than your potential that you were born with, then it’s time to let him or her go. Only surround yourself with those individuals that are a true reflection of who you are. Because in business and your personal life, you are associated with whom you surround yourself with. So make sure to choose wisely.

Tip #6: Purge the Negative and Excess From Your Life
Being a success in life also means nurturing good, healthy relationships in both the personal and professional areas of your life. As your life expands and you become more successful, life gets busier, fuller, and it may be challenging at times to balance it all. You realize how valuable time is and there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. When you start feeling overwhelmed and wondering if you can do it all, that’s when you really should apply this sixth tip, which will help relieve stress and eliminate the things, or even people that might bring you down. It’s time to purge your closet of the negative and excessive things and situations you don’t need in your life so that you can make this year the best year yet! 
Just like we do spring cleaning in our homes, we have to do some spring-cleaning in our personal life as well. Once you figure out your passion and set a plan into motion to make it happen, tip #6 is to look at other areas of your life that might be taking too much time away from your goals. If you’ve taken the time to create a vision plan for yourself and done the soul-searching necessary to achieve that, now it’s time to cut out the excess that can be potentially harmful or impede you on the road to success. This means letting go of unnecessary people, commitments, things, and activities that don’t serve you anymore or add positive value to your life. If there are people in your life that are haters, keep them at a distance, and don’t make them your friend. If you have friends or relationships that aren’t mutually rewarding, look at that as well and see if they need nurturing or letting go. Look very closely and dig deep as to why you attract certain negative people in your life if you are surrounded by negativity in your personal life, and do your best to purge it from your life. Negative people, those who whine, disrespect, demean, complain, and gossip about others usually are not the most successful, and certainly not happy. If you have negative people in your social circle, they will only bring you down, both emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, where it will start negatively affecting the other aspects of your life. Do your best to avoid doing these negative behaviors as well, and associating with people who are always negative and exemplify this type of negative behavior. Just like purging your closet of things that don’t fit you anymore, it’s time to purge your spiritual, emotional closet as well so you leave room for better people to come into your life, more opportunities, and more time to nurture the healthy and good relationships you do have and most especially, your dreams. It’s one of the best things you can do to create the extra time that’s needed towards achieving the goals that are important to you, and nurturing and maintaining the relationships in your life that need nurturing as well.

Tip #7: Have Faith
Faith is one of the strongest virtues you can have when it comes to realizing your dreams. There will be ups and downs but having faith in yourself and your dreams will keep you in the game longer than your competitors. Life is full of tests. Many of these tests are there to determine your character. How you handle challenges, stress, and how you overcome them is a way to determine what kind of person you are. Do you give up easily or complain when the going gets rough? Or are you the type of person that will stay positive and rise to the occasion and power through?  What has worked for me for every obstacle I’ve ever had to face is staying positive, and having faith and endurance through all the good and the bad in life. I do believe that through faith and hard work, you will reach your dreams.

Tip #8: Keep Going, Don’t Give Up, and Believe in Yourself
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” On the journey towards reaching your goals, there are usually obstacles to overcome. Nothing good in life, and this is for anything comes with real ease. The goals you want to achieve in life are tough because they’re supposed to be. Overcoming obstacles helps to build the confidence necessary to achieve even greater things and when you are a leader, your challenges will be ever present so you can be a positive example to others. I’m not saying that life won’t have quiet times of respite or amazing moments of joy. But I’m reminding you that life has challenges and the challenges come so that when you overcome them and finally reach your dream or goal, the achievement will be that much sweeter and more amazing. Think about the years of training an athlete has to endure every four years so he can compete at his events and eventually the Olympics. It was the same mindset I had as a competitive figure skater and tennis player. It was that positive, strong mindset that I learned as an athlete that I apply to every area of my life. It’s helped me when I worked in business development, fundraising, getting through school, and goals in one’s personal or professional life. It’s the same attitude you can apply to any area of your life that seems difficult or insurmountable. I always love it when I see my clients, students, and colleagues continue to forge ahead despite naysayers and negative people. It’s important to keep going, stay persistent, and don’t give up. If you are loyal to your cause or your vision, you will eventually achieve your goal. I guarantee it. A good example of a person who did that was Steve Jobs who left an amazing legacy with his Apple products that we all enjoy today. When he first started, there weren’t a lot of people that believed in him. He had obstacles to overcome. But he had the foresight, vision, and insight that he anchored in his head, heart, and soul that fueled his every move and helped him stay the course. He wasn’t going to stop until he completed his mission and dream to change the world. That’s the kind of vision or passion you should have for everything in your life. It’s the type of vision that keeps you going. So keep going, believe in you, and don’t give up. You will make your dreams come true!

In Conclusion
My wish for all of you is to have a truly great year! It’s a lunar new year of the fire monkey and a time of movement, change, ambitions realized, and positive energy. I hope that the tips I’ve shared will help you get through any obstacles in life, inspire you to reach your goals, and elevate your dreams. There’s nothing you can’t achieve without the power of your mind. Remember, whatever your mind can see and believe, you can achieve!  Make this a great year and one to remember!

Warmest wishes,
Panney Wei, C.Ht.