Let’s get honest. We are nearing the end of February and our New Year’s Resolutions are waning. Our word of the year feels lost in time and space. Our motivation to make this the best year ever has merged into the slow lane. On cruise control. And it’s time to reset!
When we set a goal for ourselves, we start out feeling so uber committed and energized! We feel challenged and accomplished. We feel driven and confident. Then things start to slip a little and we make excuses or push it off to next week and before we know it, we’re right back where we started before the goal or resolution was set.
I’ll start with my own example. My word of the year is “accountability.” I chose it because it felt like a natural follow up to my word last year which was “brave.” I felt this year was the year to put action and discipline behind all my courageous leaps of last year and really get into the nitty gritty work. I started out great in January. Staying accountable to my personal and professional goals. I made it to yoga on a regular basis and keep my blogging and writing goals on target. I decided I should schedule some time off on Wednesdays throughout the entire month of February to really delegate and protect some time to finish my book proposal. So I planned ahead, blocked off the time on my iphone calendar and then what did I do? I booked clients right over the top of that blocked off time. Giving up that many hours a week of client time just didn’t work for my caseload! I couldn’t hold to that goal. So instead of feeling like a flop or a failure, I recognized I needed to reframe it and see it as an opportunity to “reset.”
We all slip and fall. We all slide off the rails from time to time! But the difference is, we don’t have to land there. This doesn’t have to become a new identity. We can hit it and bounce. That’s resiliency. That’s resolve. The key is to not get stuck there at the bottom of the fall! Sometimes we have to realize that the goals we set and how we have planned to roll out our accountability to those goals is not realistic. We may need to adapt our goals and try to make them more achievable, change the metrics or benchmarks and adapt. Or, we may need to simply reset and start again.
Maybe instead of one lofty annual goal – like our new year’s resolutions, we should begin at the flip of the calendar and reset at the top of each month? Take a few moments and assess where you are with your goal, determine if you need to block off the time differently, change how you access that goal, re-prioritize, gently take a breath and start over again.
The key to success, in my opinion has a lot to do with perseverance. Are you able to sit down or stand up and start over again? Do you have the discipline and will to push through your own resistance? Can you do that without judgement and do it compassionately? Can you encourage yourself to gently remember why you set that goal and what you were hoping to achieve by doing so? Are you willing to reset? Do you have the resolve to go back at it and woodshed it a little more?
If you’re like me, and your resolutions or resolve has lost its luster, then join me in looking ahead to March 1st as a chance to begin again! Let’s RESET together.