RESET: ROUND TWO

So. We’re a month and a bit into 2021 and if you’re anything like me, that list of New Year’s resolutions isn’t quite fulfilled (🙃).

Somewhere in between January 1st, life, work, family, friends, admin, lockdown, and a million other things, all those good intentions to get my ‘New Year, New Me’ mantra into action have somehow gotten a little bit sidetracked. And up until recently, that really bothered me.

Without realising it, we can very easily and very quickly put pressure on ourselves to have everything right from the get-go. When our mental checklist of ‘be better at this’, ‘start to do this’, ‘DON’T do that’, and all the other familiar resolution chimes isn’t full of beautiful green ticks, our mind can start to play a few nasty tricks (and yes, that rhymes). When we are so focused on the perfection and completion of the end result, it can be difficult to re-motivate ourselves to set out to achieve the goals we created at the start of the year. This not only piles on the pressure (and the stress🥴), it also causes us to lose out on the very best part of setting a goal: the process.

As we come to the middle of February, I want anyone who is feeling bogged down about not achieving the January list of ‘Must Dos’ to take a step back, reflect, reassess, breathe, and RESET.

Sometimes all we need is a second chance, a redo button and a reset round two. So, here’s a couple of ways we can do that and a few thoughts as to why this is so important.

3, 2, 1, GO…! (Again.)

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1. Look Back & Learn

Like most mathematical word problems, the key to figuring an issue out comes from learning what the situation is and how we got there.

When we’re looking to reset we first need to figure out what things have led us to needing to do so. This can be SO many different things! For me it’s usually a nasty little thing called procrastination. But whether this or something entirely different, by identifying the problems within the equation we can formulate the right solutions to fix them.

Why not take a few moments this week to look at the things which may be hindering your process to reaching your goals or achieving your resolutions? This simple activity will help you to decide what to avoid in round two and it’ll help you in preparing yourself to do so.

Oh and remember, absolutely nothing is too difficult to fix! 

You got this ⭐️

2. Reset = Redirect

Okay, so we’re back to the beginning now with so much ahead (WHOO!🎉). We’ve made a note of the things to watch out for and we’re getting ready to go… Hold on a second.

Before we get ready to take on round two, let’s take a moment to plan the next few steps - not the whole journey!

For some, writing down short-term objectives that contribute to our long term goals is helpful, or similarly, mapping out achievable min-wins we can achieve along the journey is a great way to redirect our steps in the best direction possible. For example, if one of your long-term goals/resolutions is to get up at 6am everyday (okay maybe not on weekends), you could set short-term markers of getting up 10 minutes earlier every week. These bite-size goals help to put the bigger ones into perspective and contribute to a more efficient and successful way of instilling long-term habits or achievements that will actually last. Immediate perfectionism and cold-turkey changes may seem like the more impressive feats from the outside; however, often they are usually short-lived and leave us feeling more disappointed than anything else.

A good rule of thumb is this: Small steps = Big wins 😊

3. Don’t Overthink It

Have you ever gone on a holiday or a trip that required a lot of packing/prepping? And then the minute you leave your house you start to list all the things you didn’t do or begin to stress about a million and one different scenarios that could make the entire trip go topsy turvy? Yeah, me too.

I guess you could say that overthinking tends to be a great journey’s sidekick. But it’s a habit we can all kick far, far, FAR away.

As we approach the middle of February we can easily dwell on all the things we didn’t achieve in January and allow them to put us into a spiral of overthinking for the rest of the year. However, with a reset of a journey comes a reset of the mind. I’m setting both myself and you the challenge of hitting reset on our mental approach to round two. Let’s commit to wiping away all the should haves and could haves and replace them with optimism and excitement for what’s ahead. Because that’s the thing, there really is so much ahead of each of us!

Make the decision today to say, “Not today!🚫” to that pesky voice telling you to overthink it. We miss out on so many wonderful little moments when we do and, as the saying goes, we forget to stop and smell the roses. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure that we could all do with an overthinking detox.

So, stop. 

Breathe. 

Don’t sweat it, don’t stress it. 

Don’t overthink it.

You can do it 🙏

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As the rest of the month rolls around, remember that it’s never too late for round two. And if you need a round three, four, five… one hundred, that’s totally fine too.

You can take as many resets as you need, but each time take note of the things you can improve, the things you can let go of, and the things which will propel you forwards.

Wherever you are in your life as you read this, I hope you are encouraged to be excited about all that is ahead of you! There is so much joy to look forward to, so much potential to tap into, and so much hope to hold on to.

There is so much inside of you and don’t you forget it 💜

As Aaron Lauritsen so beautifully put it: “There is strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the sun will rise again tomorrow.” 

Take care, take hold of your reset and take charge of your round two.

Catch you soon, Oi Fam.
Alexia