Those New Year’s Resolutions can go from encouraging to utterly discouraging very quickly! We all know the guys who flood the gym for a week and are ghosts after that. Or the holier-than-thou coworker who turn down the office donuts… maybe twice. Or one of my favorites is the one who buys a ukulele and instruction book, watches two hours of YouTube, and then has a new dust collector in the corner! We’ve all been these people, and it’s honestly hard not to be!
Resolutions are great. They make us think about how we can improve personally and professionally. So why is it so easy to get discouraged? If we don’t make progress in leaps and bounds, or don’t stay the course at every moment, it’s easy to drift back to our old ways. Those old, old ways of 2021. All those habits we were trying to change when the clock struck midnight. And too often, these changes that would be so beneficial to our lives are given up on.
So what do we do?
I’m glad you asked! I’m trying something new this year, and I encourage you to join me. I’m not making any resolutions. Not a single one. Instead, I’m going to implement a new thought process. I am going to have a thought process focused on growth. Am I making progress? Am I moving forward? Am I taking positive steps that will lead me to success? Remember, even small steps taken in the right direction will eventually get you where you want to go.
Yes, it would be nice to be the next Dave Brubeck or Elton John. (I’ll just let you look Brubeck up on Spotify) But becoming that good doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, we’re asking; do I have the right books? Am I taking time to practice? After months of sitting in front of a piano, I personally have found that I still am not George Gershwin, but I am a much better Phil Martin than I was. I am a lot better than I was a month ago – or two, or three. That is growth.
So, what is needed for growth?
- Know yourself and accept yourself. Is this something you truly want to do and not just a passing fancy?
- A honest desire to see it through to the end.
- A commitment to the process (forget about the endgame).
- Surround yourself with people who are there to support you.
- Don’t compare yourself to anyone but yourself.
- Get started. The secret to getting ahead is to get started.
It is never too late to grow into what you’ve always wanted to be
