It's that time again... the time to rip off the last calendar page and begin a new chapter! I’ve always believed the notion any day is a good day to make changes and start anew – sometimes this might be the start of a new day, a new week, or even a new hour in the day. At any point we can choose to start anew, to begin again. We can forget yesterday’s missteps and correct the path today. But regardless of those “anews” there is nothing as clean cut as New Year’s Day. However, many of us (yes myself included) find ourselves feeling finicky over setting NE’s resolutions. I often wonder if it’s our own systemic rebellion, fear of failure, perfectionism, or maybe it’s coming down from an incredibly overwhelming season which leaves us needing a mental break not a mental to do list. Whatever our reasons, many rebel against the notion (or superficially set vague goals to be socially polite in conversations – yes I see you out there). Personally, my favorite way around this is to first give myself a grace period, for me that means my “new year” doesn’t actually begin until school picks back up. This year that means I have an extra 2 days to gain some clarity and focus. For many of my clients I encourage the entire month of January as a reset and refocus. What I often find is first allowing the mind to settle allows the body to more easily follow (frequently well before the end of the month). But what about simply feeling overwhelmed and exhausted from the holidays and mentally deflated looking at the dark winter days ahead? If this is you, adding more to the to do list will only drain you further, it's time to start taking away. A simple mindset reset could help you gain clarity by first being still. I love taking the first few weeks of the new year as a physical reset of the spaces around me and a mental reset of things I don’t want to carry into the next chapter. The only way I can begin to tackle them is to first sit still and identify what they are. I let myself spend some time examining my current mindset and where it might be limiting me. Simply put, your mindset is your belief system impacting your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that influence how you perceive your world around you. Mindset influences EVERYTHING in our lives. We limit ourselves by getting stuck in a fixed mindset where we believe nothing can and will change (my abilities now are my forever abilities. If I haven’t learned it by now, I most likely won’t be able to learn it.) Even reading these words you can see how limiting they are. A growth mindset however, we believe we are in control and can make changes to better our lives. Our abilities are influenced by our effort. We might not become Einstein or a world leader in our industry but our outcomes are directly influenced by the effort we put into something. I recently heard that if you spend 18 minutes a day learning a task or skill, after 1 year of that consistency you will be better than 95% of the population in the skill set. Imagine if you commit to just one thing for 18 minutes a day, where will that effort take you… and now compound that with a new skill year after year! I find that incredibly inspiring. That is a growth mindset!
January's Armchair Bookshelf
Notable Words
Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become deeds. Watch your deeds. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.
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Until Next Time ~ Be Well, Do Kind