By Richard Morris – CEO TheGivingMachine
So it’s the beginning of a new year and yes, many of us are considering resolutions or changes while some are saying that this is all rubbish as we’ll break them anyway. So why do we do this?
We are habit driven creatures and over the holidays we break the usual routines for a while. Deep, ingrained habits operate in autopilot mode but organising family get-togethers, huge feasts, travelling and keeping the peace among lots of people all together in one space takes real human engagement. There’s no room for autopilot there and so it can be very tiring. Come early January I can hear friends and family all say, ‘I’m looking forward to getting back into normal routines again.’
But as we restart our usual habits and routines, it’s a good time to question whether they serve us well or need tweaking somewhat. Stephen Covey in his book ‘First Things First’ talks about regularly sharpening the saw – a metaphor for keeping ourselves sharp across key areas of our holistic health. The ‘saw’ comprises of our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing.
These aspects are the foundations for creating fulfilment in the personal and professional roles we all have. More and more research suggests that how we feel about ourselves – our mental health – is directly linked to our physical health and how well we ‘perform’ on our own but also as part of families, groups, organisations and in society itself.
So, how will you evolve this year? What will you change? I thought I’d share some changes I’m making in case they are useful to others – please feel free to share yours if they may be helpful to others.
- Be more aware of my physical health – sleep, nutrition, fitness and respond as needed.
- Block my weekday mornings to do actual work and then use www.appointlet.com to help let people I want to meet book time with me in the afternoons. This has already made me far more efficient and reduces the meeting ping pong emails.
- Stick to my morning meditation routine.
- Laugh as much (or more) in 2020 as I did in 2019.
- Continue and reinforce my gratitude mindset
Make 2020 the year to put YOU first so that you have the energy and capacity to be even more amazing this year!