This time of year personal growth professionals, bosses, friends, family, even Nancy Neighbor down the street, will ask you what your New Year’s Resolutions are and how you’re going to keep them. Implicit in this are 3 things:
- You should have New Year’s Resolutions.
- You should have more than one.
- And that you should keep them.
I wonder…could this all be much ado about nothing?
Do you really need to have New Year’s Resolutions? If it’s a requirement, it must be because they are effective. Hmmm…. I suspect it’s more that it has become habit.
And who said you had to have more than one. Goodness knows we have enough on our plates as it is!
How resolved are people to keep their resolutions? At first, to a great deal, but it generally wanes – as anyone who has lamented about the parking difficulty at the gym in the month of January, only to be elated when it’s easy again half way through February.
I quit making resolutions a long time ago. It turns out I was just resurrecting the same old resolutions, and obviously getting nowhere. A great mechanism if your goal is “how can I make myself feel even worse this year”
Of course, this time of year is a good one for planning. In the northern hemisphere, Winter with its pending Spring brings forth all kinds of growthful thoughts. In the southern hemisphere, the turn of the new year, the slow movement from the fullness of Summer to the harvest of Fall has you thinking of what you have sown – is it enough, do I need to do more/better/different next year in order to reap more?
So, given it is a natural time for planning, I humbly suggest we think in terms of EVOLUTIONS rather than resolutions.
After all, we are changing and evolving all the time. (And, of course, that’s what Personal Growth Princess is all about.) It’s important to honor that it goes on all year. It’s a way of validating who we are, what we’ve learned, and how we’re using it today.
One of the things I am evolving this year are my beliefs and my rituals, which according to neuro-scientists, are closely linked.
To the outside world I look like I’ve got it all, that life is great, and I’m a huge success. While some of that is true – more at some times than others – it’s also true that I put up with quite a bit that bugs me. Like the rear windshield wiper in my car that works when it wants to, which is generally not when it’s raining.
I’m developing a worksheet to help princesses, me included, to start doing less of this, and having more of what we want. In the meantime, I’m developing some new beliefs, and have a handy ritual to help reinforce it.
One of my new beliefs is that “There is always a way to have it the way I want it.” 
The picture at the right is a quick graphic I created to help me remember just that. There IS always a way to have it the way I want it.
The graphic actually comes from an inspirational video I created for myself. I shared it in an earlier post, but haven’t been using it as I planned.
So that’s the new ritual…to watch the video every morning as part of my morning ritual. Just so you know, I created this specifically for me, so it has pictures of me and uses my own handwriting. My guess is you’ll want to create one for yourself. One the page with the video is a link to the person who taught me how to do this. (If you have powerpoint or something similar, it’s really pretty easy.)
So…think Evolution, not resolution.
What evolved for you in 2009, and what are you evolving in 2010? Comment below and let me know.
Happy Evolution!
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