Are you on the brink?

No, not at the edge of a steep cliff looking down at the ground oh-so-far-away. Ready for something new!

We’re on the brink of a new year and you’re probably hearing or thinking about how you want things to be different in 2023. You may set resolutions. They may or may not be ones you’ve set in the past.

Or, maybe you choose not to set resolutions and you just hope things will change. I admit, this was my attitude for a number of years.

The issue is that when we do things the way they’ve always been done we get similar results.

You may say, “I don’t set resolutions because I never carry them through” or “I set the same resolutions each year because I don’t achieve them.” Hey, I get it! It feels defeating to set goals and not attain them.

Let’s explore a couple of truths that often get lost in the hubbub of the holidays and the start of a new year:

• Just because the calendar turns from one year to another doesn’t mean it’s the only time you can make changes in your life. In fact, you don’t have to start at the beginning of a month or a week either. You can begin a change whenever you choose.
• There’s no “right or wrong” number of adjustments to work on at one time. You have to account for your personal and professional life at that moment. There are times when you can work on several changes at once and other days when you’re doing well to stay on top of everything.
• Regardless of what you want to be different, you’re talking about habit change. Altering routines is a process that takes time.

If you stay on the same path, it leads to the same destination. That’s fine as long as it’s where you want to be. If you want to go somewhere else, you need to take a different road.

Here are three methods you can choose from to recognize growth in your personal and professional life:

If specific resolutions work for you, make time to craft one or more. Remember to include the time period during which you will work on it and how you will know when you’ve accomplished your goal. Making a plan for when and how you will work toward the target helps you work towards it consistently.

If you want a focus for the year that will impact all areas of life, you may want to try “One Word.” It is what it sounds like: you choose one word for the year and filter all of your actions, choices, etc. using that word.

The author of the Inc. article, Here’s How One Word Can Change Your Life in 2022, shares her personal experience and methodology. A simple web search yields tons of other resources.

If making small improvements in different life areas appeals to you, you may want to try concentrated tiny habit changes. For instance, I believe there are five Beacon Habits: movement, nutrition, rest, anchoring, and mindset. In January and February, you could work on increasing movement.

You need a way to track your steps and a baseline. If you average 800 steps a day, the goal by the end of February could be 1,600 or 2,400 or whatever number you choose. Maybe you park in spots farther from your destination, or walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or march in place while handwashing the dishes.

In March and April, you continue, but don’t change, the number of steps per day, and you add the objective of increasing your water intake. If you generally drink 30 ounces of water, you could work on doubling it.

There are several ways to track your water. I use a free water drinking app for my 91 oz. daily minimum. I love watching the fish jump when I record how much water I had, as well as the extra “at-a-girls'” when I get to half of my daily goal, and when I complete it.

Before I started using the app, my goal was 64-oz. per day. At the beginning of the day I filled a container with that amount of water and poured it into a smaller glass throughout the day. There was nothing quite like seeing the empty container at the end of the day.

Some people might use a water bottle and rubber-bands or ponytail holders. With a 64-oz. goal and a 16-oz. water bottle, you put four rubber-bands on at the beginning of the day and remove one each time you finish the water bottle.

In May and June, you continue the previous activities and add a small goal in another area. You would do the same for July and August, as well as September and October.

Since this is a cumulative progression, November and December may be used to maintain or tweak the previous goals. A strong foundation will help you in the future if you choose to continue improving in any of these areas in the future.

At the end of an episode in the TV series M.A.S.H., Colonel Potter comments on the end of the year by saying, “Here’s to the new year. May she be a damn sight better than the old one, and may we all be home before she’s over.”

Given the past two years, instead of “may we all be home” we’d say, “may Covid be managed.” Or you might have another caveat in mind, “may all my bills be paid on time” or “may I have a 60-minute massage each month.”

To get there, implement one of the methods listed above or create your own path.

Are you on the brink? Yes, of something new and exciting!

Please share any thoughts so we can all benefit from your wisdom.