Will You Finish This Year or Will You 'Complete' It?

How will you end the year of our Lord 2006?

Will you finish this year ... or will you complete it?

Finishing just happens; you don't have a lot to do with it. 12:01 a.m. merely pops up on the clock and that's that. You move on to 2007 without so much as a farethewell to the 365 days that have just passed.

But completing ... now here's a different story. Completing is active, not passive. Completion is something you make the decision to do. You vow to complete on 2006 and all that it was to you. You energetically wrap it up, acknowledge it, and applaud its gifts. 2006's lessons are now bound in its own primer and filed away.

Completing feels like choice. As I am a great advocate of not having rules or events imposed upon me, I'll go for completion over finished every time. Wouldn't you rather have a completion date than a deadline?

So here is what I am saying to myself as 2006 winds on down:

Thank you, 2006, for teaching me so much about ___________________. I've learned so much about _______________ that I am in fact completed on it.

Thank you, 2006, for giving me so much _________. I really appreciated that, 2006.

For example, in 2006, I learned a lot about what it feels like to sit on my butt in front of a computer and let my muscles go to jello. Now I am the world's greatest living expert on tapioca thighs. My lessons are completed in this area so I will thank 2006 for teaching me this and be done with it.

I know that 2007 will bring me new lessons. I am fervently hoping that one of these lessons will fall into the domain of what it feels like to have uber-tight, toned thighs with quads and calves that can zap off a killer roundhouse.

If there are parts of 2006 that you want to be done with -- say goodbye to them now. Don't just finish the year out. Don't drag the grief, hurts, angers, fears, frustrations or sorrows from one calendar to the next. Actively let go of them.

There is a Completion exercise that has worked for many friends of mine. On New Year's Eve, they sit in front of the fireplace, bonfire or candle. First they write down all they want to complete on for that year. They say a farewell prayer or meditation, and then one by one, they place the slips of paper in the fire, watching as they curl and burn. As the smoke rises, they bless the year and say goodbye for good.