A new year, a clean slate, a fresh start.

You wish!

Much as we might like to believe that things can be different and better in 2006, we all wake up on January 1 with a nasty hangover.

No, this is not the kind of hangover caused by over-indulging in drink. This is the carryover of all the fears, limiting beliefs, assumptions and assorted blocks that keep us from doing the things we say we want to do - whether that is losing 20 pounds or cleaning out the garage or starting a business.

When the calendar year turns over, our inner obstacles tend to hang around, despite good intentions and determined resolutions.

Now comes what Christie Latona and Janet Fox advocate as a potent cure for this particular kind of hangover. It is to be found in their new book, The Playful Power of Metaphor: Harness the Winds of Creativity, Innovation and Possibility. If you really want a fresh start, these authors say, begin by telling yourself a story. If you really want different and better in 2006, find a metaphor that describes how things are now, or perhaps a metaphor for what you want to see in the future.

The 54-page book, published in November by Fun & Done Press, illustrates by exercises and anecdotes how imagery can help us re-imagine our lives and turn intention into action. Do you feel like a candle in the wind? A deer in the headlights? A babe in the woods? A goldfish in a sea of barracudas

? Identifying what your situation is like is an excellent starting point for generating options and alternatives.

Latona and Fox, who are both consultants, coaches and group facilitators, also present the idea of hats as metaphors for roles and perspectives. A surgeon's cap, for example, can be helpful when clear thinking, not bogged down by emotion, is called for. Metaphorically donning a construction worker's hardhat is useful when it's time to move off the blueprint and on to the actual implementation. The graduate's mortarboard may help us sort out and celebrate what we've outgrown, what we've gained, and what learning we want to take into the next stage of life.

"Fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, perfectionism, pessimism - all those things that keep us stuck - are really strong forces,” Latona said. "We need something even stronger to fight them. In our work we see every day that stories, similes, images and allegories can be the active ingredients needed to get people moving and thriving.”

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