Happy New Year!!
The calendar has turned, and we’re in a new year. We can leave the old one behind and look forward to a fresh start. Every year, we get this opportunity for a reset. We get to choose whether to take it or not.
It’s a time we think about what we want to do differently and how we want to live our life. We examine those things we want to keep and those we want to let go and no longer do. It’s good to make a list of both of these.
Most of the time, when we make our resolutions, we think of everything we need to change. Our list looks like this:
But the trap, and where most of us fail, is trying to change all of them at once.
We can sustain this level of change for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks. Then we lose steam or burnout, and we’re back to doing the same things in the same way, or not doing what we wanted.
For most of us, it would work better if we looked at our lists and choose one thing on each to focus on. What is the most important, or most critical, for us to quit doing and to start doing? Then make a plan, look at the steps needed.
What is the ONE step we need to do to make that change?
For instance, if our most desired change is to be healthy, we often list ten things; such as
- Drink more water
- Cut our sugar intake
- Eat more healthy
- Exercise more, etc.
We then try to do all of that at once. Doing this overwhelms us, and we stop doing any if it. However, we’ll have better success if we choose ONE thing on our list of things to do to be more healthy.
Maybe we choose to drink more water. That is something we can focus on: drinking a bit more each day until it’s a habit and something we don’t have to think about.
It takes about 90-days to create and change a habit. So, give yourself the grace of time.
Some days you’ll reach your water intake goal and others you won’t. That’s just part of changing a habit. The next day, drink more than the day before you “fell off the wagon,” rebuilding your efforts to reach your goal. Take a step forward every day.
If it’s only one thing you’re changing, you’re less likely to give up when you have a bad day, or you get sick, or have another life interruption. You can take these in stride and do better the next day or when you recover.
Soon, drinking more water will be a habit. You may find other items on your list have also changed as you actively focused on one thing. Your subconscious mind remembers “the list” and works to make it so. As you drank more water, you may have subconsciously chosen to eat less sugar or make healthier food choices.
It’s how the subconscious mind works. You’ve told it what you wanted, and you’ve given it a list. You’re actively working on that list with the one item you’ve chosen. By doing so, you’re telling your subconscious mind that being healthy is important to you. It works to bring about the things for you to be more healthy in beautiful, synchronistic, and serendipitous ways, or as I like to call them, happy-stances.
Now that drinking water is a habit for you, you can choose another thing on your list to change. Taking it step-by-step, you’ll reach your goal of being healthy. You haven’t overwhelmed or burned yourself out by trying to do all the things at once.
WRITING GOALS
We can do this with our writing goals. If we try to change all the things about our writing process or writing business, we’ll burn out and accomplish none of them. Our goal may be to be more productive, to write more often or more words, or publish more books.
One of the first things I would examine is your Human Design and Clifton Strengths. These will guide you on what things to choose that are aligned with your energy, design, and strengths. A goal of writing 10k words a day won’t work if you are a Manifestor or Projector. You simply won’t have the consistent energy available to do that and sustain it. You might be able to do it for a day or two, and then be wiped out and exhausted for the next three. If your top five Clifton Strengths are all, or mostly, thinking strengths, like mine, then you’ll need time to think about your story or book before you write.
Not all of us are designed to write 10K words a day, or publish 8+ books a year. And that’s okay! We can still find success publishing 1 or 2 books a year. Our design and life situation may be such that we can only write 500 words a day. That’s okay! Each day, we can make forward progress.
Before making any changes, examine your writing process, your strengths, your Human Design, and your personality.
One of the most common pieces of advice we hear about to be more productive is to get up early and write. That is NEVER, EVER going to happen for me! I’m NOT a morning person. I’m not creative first thing in the morning. Before I do anything in the morning—even before getting out of bed—I need time to think, ponder, and meditate. Late night is my favorite time and day, and I love the quiet when everyone else, and the world, is asleep. That’s my creative time.
For me, the one thing I could change is to stop wasting my late-night creative time scrolling on social media or playing computer games. Instead, I choose to use this time to write. This is what my one thing I’m choosing to change for 2023.
I invite you to make a list of things you want to change, to do more of, or to quit. But instead of doing all the things, all at once, choose one item to focus on.
This will help you make a New Year’s resolution that will stick, and create the lasting change in your life that you desire.
