It is amazing how the human spirit wants to hit a reset button at 12:01 AM on December 31. We want to see, think and feel like we have a clean slate and another chance to get it right this time!
We know deep down it is illogical, but personally and professionally we buy in on the concept.
With that in mind I propose we embrace this new year 2018 as our year and own it!
Let’s own this year as the year we decide will be our best year ever. How can we own it you ask? By deciding to take ACTION!
Own your personal growth! Own your professional growth! Carol S. Dweck, PhD wrote a book called Mindset. She advised that her research indicated that we can fall into one of two categories. We either have a fixed Mindset or a growth Mindset. Those with a fixed Mindset believe that they have finite qualities, a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality and a certain moral character. Fixed mindset people view themselves in this fixed arena and don’t believe they can truly improve. They spend a lot of time proving themselves over and over.
Those with a growth Mindset believe they can cultivate their qualities through their efforts. They believe they can change, grow and improve their initial talents, attitudes, interest or temperaments through exposure and experience. Dweck believes that we can learn to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset. The process requires that we make a concrete growth oriented plan and stick to it. As I read this book I kept thinking who would I want to operate on me? A doctor with a fixed mindset or one with a growth mindset. Which would you like to work around?
Let’s commit to do something different, read a book, take a class, go on an adventure, learn a new language. Your growth journey is personal but if you don’t take any action, you will get more of the same. That may be the very worst fate.
Own your happiness! I realized a long time ago that I can’t make another person happy! Not my spouse, my children, my sisters, co-workers or even bosses. Just like growth, happiness is an inside job! I learned that I need to work on finding out what makes me happy. If I lived happy in front of everyone, I was then leading by example. I deserve to be happy. I can’t believe an unhappy person could make another person happy! Do you believe you deserve to be happy? If you don’t I certainly shouldn’t put my fate or future in your hands.
Own your lane! I love to swim laps. I stay in my lane and lose myself to working on my strokes and form. I improve through repetition and time. For that half hour, I own that lane.
When I am clear about what I want and where I want my career to go I can move toward that goal. Getting clarity comes easier when you have focused on your growth and you are in touch with your own happiness and desires.
When I hear, a person say what she would have done with her life if she had had another spouse or mate or children I get angry! I had a long talk with my daughter when she suggested she had made certain decisions for the benefit of her child. This sounds so benevolent right, as a parent we should sacrifice for our loved ones. But, I shared with her that my mother used to always make comments about her sacrifices and how I thought that it was so unfair of her to comment usually a complaint on what she was giving up when I as a child never got a voice or vote on the matter. She made those decisions, not me, she choose those sacrifices, not me. She decided to do or not do something not me. As a young girl, I decided I would own my decisions. I would be a cheerful giver. I would not blame or use another person as my excuse or crutch. I wanted my daughters and son to own their decisions for the right reasons. I moved my family around the country for a career and now as adults they are well adjusted and can grow wherever they are planted.
My husband and I choose to flip our traditional roles and I was the major breadwinner and he was the stay at home parent! The result was I figured out my lane and I did the very best in that lane. My children and grandchildren have very few self-imposed limitations and they own that good or not.
Let’s view 2018 as a gift to be unwrapped over time. Let’s be brave enough to ask ourselves the tough questions.
- What is the most important thing that I should be working on?
- What is getting in the way of me being the best or #1 at what I do?
- Am I curious enough?
- Do I have a plan to take me from Point A to Point B?
- How can I improve my focus and discipline?
- Am I leveraging the strengths of my team mates, friends and family?
- What would have to happen for you to consider 2018 the best year of your life and career?
- We can’t control everything but if we could maximize what we can control what would we accomplish?
I love the story of the baby carrots! There is no such thing as baby carrots. I know you’ve seen them in the grocery store but those carrots are the result of a farmer that had a bunch of misshapen carrots he couldn’t sell to the stores because of their appearance. He had to accept a lesser payment for those carrots because they could only be sold to a secondary market that would cut them up in recipes or juice them. One day he decided to cut up the misshapen carrots into smaller pieces in the shape of perfect little carrots and called them baby carrots. This is the story of innovation where the farmer took a resource he already possessed and remade it into something of higher value. He maximized what he could control!
Let’s find our baby carrots in 2018 and OWN IT!!!!!!!