New Year, New State of Mind

We did it. We made it through an extremely turbulent 2020 and first month of 2021, perhaps a bit shell-shocked and understandably hesitant about what the future holds. And through it all we continued to work day-after-day, take care of our families, and tried to maintain some sense of normalcy. We deserve a nice long bath. And a glass (or bottle) of wine.

Experiencing Burnout

Last year was certainly a test of everyone’s strength and resilience. As many people shifted from an office environment to remote and the pandemic caused wide-spread anxiety like we’ve never seen before, our willpower was tested in ways we could have never foreseen. Work-life balance became non-existent and the idea of going into work was worse than before. How is it possible to delineate work and a home when both aspects of your life are confined to the same 900 square foot space?

The intermingling of home and work made us much more prone to burnout. At the same time, we were quarantined away from the people we cared about the most making it very easy to get caught up in a negative mental state. And for many, an all-time favorite pastime, travel, was no more.

We were forced to shift focus, incorporating more self-care into our routines as we started to realize the need for emotional healing from all that we had suppressed in the past. Without our normal distractions, everything was coming to the surface. And as soon as we thought we were ok, we'd make the silly mistake of checking social media just to find ourselves sinking back into an emotional hole. It was a rollercoaster of a year to say the least.

Leaving Resolutions in the Past

With 2020 behind us, we’re leaving 2020 ideas in the past as well. Anything that promotes those negative feelings can stay behind. It might sound odd, but that includes “resolutions”.

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, a resolution is defined as “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” There is a sense of finality in the word. Can we agree not to go through this year forcing ourselves into anything? Life constantly throws us lemons (i.e. a pandemic), and making inflexible resolutions sets ourselves up for failure.

By the beginning of February, 80% of us are falling off of those overly ambitious goals we set and feeling bad about ourselves. On top of this, 92% don't hit their goals by the end of the year. This sounds like a sure way to not set ourselves up for the best chances of success.

Small Yet Mighty 12 Week Goal Cycles

Instead of resolutions, let’s focus on small, iterative and evolving goals. We don't have to wait until the end of the year to choose change. Instead, it can be a continual process to be iterated upon year-round. We look at goal setting on a 12 week cycle versus annual. The benefit of revisiting our goals every 12 weeks means we get multiple fresh starts and can refocus our goals as things change. As we all know too well, there were a lot of factors out of our control last year and who wouldn't have loved to press the "restart" button several times throughout 2020!??

If you're interested in diving deeper into this concept, we recommend checking out "The 12 Week Year" by Brian Moran. On top of the more frequent goal setting, the program encourages you to create measurable goals and track them regularly so you know how you are doing against what you set out to achieve. The program also recommends finding accountability buddies to hold each other responsible and to provide encouragement along the way!

Initiating A Mindset Change

We cannot change external circumstances but we can change the way we internalize or perceive our experiences. What if we made the focus of 2021 about mindset change? We can reset how our brains are wired and go into the rest of the year with a positive attitude.

Here are some suggestions to help set you up for success: