Tara Parker Pope is a journalist and author who specializes in health and wellness. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times and authors the “Well” blog. In a recent article, “For a Healthier 2021, Keep the Best Habits of a Very Bad Year,” she stresses there is much to learn and continue from the pandemic days of 2020. She encourages us to build from them rather than start over in this new year.
Many of us commit to resolutions at the beginning of every year. The data says few of us will continue more than a few weeks because we give up, forget, become bored, or are distracted with other “more important” obligations. Also, according to Pope, resolutions “tend to be inherently self-critical” and are often too large or impossible to achieve. In addition, why would you throw out a successful behavior in exchange for a new, unclear, or tedious resolution?
Let’s look back at some of your 2020 successes and ask yourself — did you …
Become more aware of what is important in life and work?
Organize a new family togetherness dynamic?
Found mundane tasks to be simple pleasures?
Realize the importance of casual encounters?
Tackle stress for better health?
Tolerate the unknown and accept change?
Discover who you can trust and depend upon?
Accept some are not trustworthy?
Clarify what you like about work and what you hate?
Honor the contributions of essential workers?
Admit how naïve you can be?
Test well on the resilience scale?
Understand the value of rituals such as weddings and funerals?
Score your boss?
Practice new or greater generosity?
Mourn and empathize with those who have lost more than you?
Succeed in remote working and learning, and find it easier than you thought?
Increase your respect for teachers?
Discover why you eat what you eat?
Learn to exercise indoors at home?
Tweak your home?
Find out what you miss (travel, eating in a restaurant, entertaining, being alone…)?
Learn new technology making work adaptable to your home space?
I am sure each of you can think of many more. This is just a starter.
Which of these or other lessons did you enjoy and endure in 2020? What do you not want to lose in 2021? Psychologists research a behavior they call stacking. This is when you identify positive and successful past ways of doing things and then build on them. Now you have a new starting point.
No longer the drudgery of the end of a year or working with a unique set of resolutions that have little connection to your recent triumphs. To do it the old way and dump everything associated with the difficult times seems wasteful and not necessarily the road to success.
I hope you can see yourself in some of the questions presented.
How do you make your insights stick and grow? For many people, setting goals, executing a plan, and crossing the finish line seems difficult to imagine and/or impossible to achieve. That is when coaching comes into the picture. Together we can identify, organize, and create an achievable plan using your knowledge and aspirations, and my experience, can-do attitude, and know-how. Coaching helps prevent missteps, wasted time, and quells self-doubt while encouraging dreams, tapping into ambition, and containing distraction.
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