ONE WAY TO END A YEAR AND START A NEW ONE….AND SOME OTHER THINGS TOO
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.
T.S. Eliot
Happy New Year! 🙂 The start of a brand-new year, and with that new dreams, new resolutions. 😊 The best time of the year to jump into fulfilling dreams, and achieving new goals, right?
How many did you achieve from the resolutions you made last year? Do you know?
It might be a good time to look at those and see what happened to them.
Magical days like the first day of a year have this effect on us – that somehow those extra 20 kilos will just jump off us, we will suddenly land our dream job, and our business will hit all its targets just by itself.
And of course, all this can actually happen, but sadly, not because we make these resolutions over and over again. More like because we have a strategy, a good plan and committed, consistent action to follow all this through.
Albert Einstein said: „No problem can be solved with the same consciousness that created it.”
A friend of mine told me the other day, that often, when he reads my posts, he feels that he will be happy and successful only if he does something new all the time. He asked me why what he’s doing right now cannot be enough?
What a great question! I would encourage you to ask questions too, to which I may or may not know the answer, but I will definitely try to give you some of what I found useful.
I’m not trying to pass on the message, that you must to start something new all the time. Most of my posts I hope are about using what you have and making the best of the situation you are in right now. But from time to time you do need to do new stuff, if want things to change in your work, your business, or your life.
So back to his question…
When is what we do enough, and when is it important to move out of our comfort zone?
As it’s the end of a year, most of us review the past 12 months, to see what we’ve achieved during this time. The way I review my year, is not very scientific. I prefer to keep it simple, and this method can actually be used for a whole lot of other things.
I ask myself these 3 questions:
- First, I start by naming some feelings – what felt good in the passing year, what made me happy, what made me feel successful, what was the feeling behind these? And how would I like to feel next year?
- What went so well in the passing year, that I would like more of in the next one?
- What didn’t go as well as I wanted it to, and what will I do with it in the following year – will I just drop it, or maybe change it?
Ask yourself these questions too. The things that did go well, can continue, right? But regarding the stuff that didn’t go well, it’s worth a thought, to see why not.
If it didn’t go well, because you hated it, then see how you can stop doing it. If you hate doing it, but it still brought you results, then have a look, and see if it can be changed in a way that you would start liking it. And if you liked it, but it did not bring results, then have a think about how you could change it, so that it will get you the results you are hoping for.
Here’s an example. I love writing my blog, but it did not expand my audience the way I hoped it would. And because I would like it to get to as many people as possible, I will have a look next year, how I could post to new platforms, and see where that gets me to. I also have loads of work to do with being consistent. 😊
Whatever your answers are to the above questions, you do need to get out of your comfort zone, if things are not going the way you want them to.
Because even bad things can be comfortable, and within our comfort zone.
There is plenty of safety in bad relationships (private or business), in work you hate, and in the most tiresome roles. But because we know how it works, it feels safe, so it can be quite scary to move away from them.
However, if everything you did brought you the results you wanted at the beginning of your year, then figure out HOW you did it. What’s behind your actions that bring you the success you envisioned? If you are able to figure this out, this is the way you will be able to achieve your goals over the long term.
Still, if you would like to grow, and get more stuff done, then you will need to do more of what works, or if not more, then do the same things, but smarter. And to do this, you might need to step out of your comfort zone again. 😊
This whole topic is a lot more complicated than there’s room for in this short post, but if you have a look at these questions, you will make some good decisions for the start of a new year.
So, the job is definitely not about doing new things all the time, but to do stuff that works. And if something doesn’t work, due to some 40-year-old story going on in your head, then stop nourishing it. Do something else instead.
I’m telling this to myself too. 😊
With this I wish you all a Wonderful New Year, and as many out of your comfort zone moments, as you find comfortable. 😊
