Who are you in your story?

I've been doing quite a bit of speaking recently about goals and the distinction between setting them and actually achieving them. This seems to be the time of year when people start reassessing their accomplishments from the previous year and look ahead to the year at hand.

One thing we may begin to realize as we find ourselves in that resolution state of mind is that our story may no longer be valid.

What do I mean by your "story"? It's that message that runs in your subconscious over and over again, usually without your even realizing it. I've heard it said that we have 60,000 random thoughts going through our heads in any given day - and many of those thoughts are the same ones over and over and over, like a stuck record (does anyone even remember what a stuck record is?) without our conscious thought.

In fact, Bob Proctor says that if most people said what they were actually thinking, they would be silent. We're so conditioned to react to our lives instead of actually responding and then we wonder why we get the same results.

So, who are you in the story that's running through your subconscious? Remember the old Dudley Do-Right cartoon? That's a great example of some of the characters that may be running your show.

If you find yourself asking "Why does this keep happening to me?" you might be Nell, the helpless victim who has given up her personal power to sources outside herself.

Or you may be Snidely Whiplash, the villain who is always taking advantage of poor little Nell, and who seems to exist to make other people's lives miserable.

And then there's our hero or our victor, good old Dudley Do-Right, who seems to exist to save everyone else, but loses himself in the process.

If you find yourself playing one of these characters in your own life, this might be a good time to do some reflection and discover your Hidden Self (H.S., which can also stand for Higher Self). That's the real you, and the beauty of uncovering that part of you is that there is no one else who can play that part. If you're not doing it, no one will.

So take this time in the weeks before 2008 and really consider who you've been and see if where you're headed is where you want to end up next December.

A year from now you will wish you had started today. And what better time than NOW to take stock before taking charge in 2008?