My view into the new year 2016

2016 - what is to become?

The best way to predict the future is to shape it. - Willy Brandt

Of course, you can't design everything, but you can often design more than you think. In the newsletter of my Down to Earth Publishers I have asked readers 10 questions that may help them to focus and reflect on what is important in their lives in the new year.

Here I want to answer the ten questions for myself.

1. what in my life should remain as it is because it is good? Find as many answers as possible.

My house, my boat, my friendships, my publishing house, the online courses, my city. Writing, coaching, inspiring. Beauty around me, getting involved, green smoothies, lunch breaks in the park or on the balcony (in good weather), trampoline, the view into the distance from my boat, accompanying people...

2. what would I have to do to prevent my life from going in a positive direction?

Getting bogged down. Wanting to do too many things at once.

3. which relationships do I want to strengthen? How?

• My closest friends, just keep experiencing lots of things with them.
• To friends and godchildren in England - a trip at Easter.
• To new friends who have fled to Berlin - eating and working together.

4. which things, people or tasks no longer fit into my current life? What do I want to let go of by New Year's Eve 2016?

• Lots of material things, clothes, books that will no longer find a place on the boat - I'm already busy sorting and clearing out. Some things are more tedious. I want to scan boxes of slides before I throw the originals away, that takes time.
• Organisational tasks in the publishing house - I would like to concentrate more on content, coaching and inspiration and less on organisation and marketing.

5 What else would I like to learn - and how?

• Basic Arabic vocabulary - with an online programme and through personal encounters.

6 How do I want to be at the end of 2016? What should be strengthened?

• Focus. I want to be a clearly focussed woman. That was already my focus in 2015 and will remain so.

7 What would I like to have achieved by 31 December 2016? (Which grievances bother me so much that I want to change something? Or what potential appeals to me so much that I want to utilise it?)

• Furthermore: to inspire and strengthen people so that their faith becomes more joyful, their relationships more relaxed and their lives stronger.
• New: Helping many thousands of refugees find accommodation in shared flats and with families, making it easier for them to settle into their new lives here. Many = 10,000 or more in Berlin. And many thousands more.

8. what would I like to do or experience for the first time in 2016?

• A summer concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin
• 5 days Iceland...or India (longer than five!)
• Inaugurate my ship!

What beneficial routine would I like to practise in 2016?

• Only open emails if I can actually answer them straight away (don't read them and then leave them unanswered).
• Work for longer periods - i.e. 60 -90 minutes - focussed at a stretch, allow myself to be interrupted less / interrupt myself less
• Every working day morning 7 - 20 min exercise.

What would I have to believe differently about myself, God or the world in order for my life to experience a positive change?

I'm still praying about this question...old patterns don't show themselves so easily...

Incidentally, the questions come from the impulse booklet „Questions about the future„. I love good, stimulating questions. In this booklet and in the other impulse booklets of the Question series I have put together some of the best and most helpful questions I know.