Here it is, a brand new year with all the promise of a fresh start that comes with it. At FlyLady we have learned that new beginnings can happen any time we choose and it doesn't take a new day, new week, new month or even a new year to start over. That doesn't change the fact that we still love new beginnings and starting fresh.

And even though we don't like New Year's resolutions, we still make goals for ourselves. This is a healthy thing to do.

The other night at the bowling alley a dear friend asked me if there was anything I had not done in my life that I really wanted to do. This was a very tough question for me. I am a happy person and I get to do everyday what God put me on this earth to do. There is not much better than that! So I thought about it for about 10 minutes and came up with something that seemed very strange to my friend.

I told her I wanted to see a volcano, a glacier and the Grand Canyon up close one day.

That was all I could think of at the time.

One day I will see them, but if my life were to end today, I would not feel sorry for myself because I had not seen them. I have no regrets about anything.

Every decision I have made in my life has ended up being a good one even if at the time it was not. I learned from my mistakes and did not pine away my future by beating myself up over past mistakes. None of us is perfect, and the sooner we understand this and quit punishing ourselves for this lack of perfection, the better off we will all be.

Perfectionism keeps us stuck in the past so we are unable to function in the present. Let's take that perfectionism bat you are beating yourself up with on a daily basis and use it to hit home runs. Each time you see perfectionism throwing you a curve ball, turn it around and hit it back to where it belongs: out of sight and out of mind!

Perfectionism is the Body Clutter we all have to face. Facing our fears head on and using those fears to propel us to a new level of understanding about ourselves and the world around us will help us to eliminate this clutter.

Fear is the opposite of love! In fact I believe that it is worse than hate. It is hate disguised as something else.

When we uncover our fears and bring them into the light of day, we are acknowledging that we don't have to be perfect and that our fears do not make us less.

Fear of failure is nothing more than a lack of love for yourself and your abilities.

Face your fears head on in this New Year! Let go of your perfectionism and you might just find yourself FLYing! (FLY is short for Finally Loving Yourself.)

---

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS; check out: www.flylady.net. Also see Cilley's book, "Sink Reflections" and her new book, "Body Clutter." Copyright 2006 Marla Cilley Used by permission in this publication.