January 1, 2022
First, let me wish you a “Happy New Year”! My prayer for you is that you adopt a “Learning Mindset” in order to keep your focus, your health, and your life in forward motion.
What is a “Learning Mindset”? This term may not be familiar to you, no matter what your age is. This term may be replaced by the word “Teachable.” Whichever one you resonate with is the important thing here. So are you “teachable,” are you actively in a “learning mindset” in your daily life? Would you say you have the ability to be prepared to learn daily in your life, whether at home, at work, or when you are out in public?
Our earliest statistics on this come from 1970. Did you know that this statistic was unchanged from 1970 – 1990? In order to be teachable, a person must be capable of being taught and have a willingness to learn.
Significant life moments also offer us the opportunity to have a moment when we are forced to learn something. Examples would be the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 9-11-2001, the COVID pandemic, political unrest, societal unrest, and so on. These types of events force us to wake up, pay attention, and take action.
Today in 2022, we are entering the third year of the COVID pandemic, and now it is time for the global population to move into a “transition period,” because, like most pandemics, they last a long time, sometimes decades or hundreds of years. Do not be lulled into thinking your “normal” will return any time soon. We must all learn new ways of recognizing and learning to deal with our new reality. In the current geo-climate, all of us must learn to face the complexity of our situation and adapt. Adaptability is the key to becoming successful. Both internal and external pressures are not going to change, and in fact, they may become more intense. Your inability to be teachable, adapt, and pivot is your most important skill right now.
The holidays are now behind us and what lies ahead is an uncertain road for many. So what can you do to reset, put your train back on track after the derailment of the past two years? Here are some ideas:
- Eliminate the distractions in your personal and professional life. This may sound impossible, but a simple way to do this is to “Unsubscribe” from all those sites which continually want to give you a great deal to buy something. Yes, it will take the same amount of time; it takes you to open and read or delete the message, so just unsubscribe!
- Pause your social media accounts. What are you on the social media account for anyway? Are you escaping? Are you connecting? Are you increasing your revenue by advertising? Are you ….? You cannot be teachable if you are in constant distracted mode.
- Are you irritable, anxious, depressed, or worried about everything you see and hear on all forms of media? Take a media holiday for a week. Do you remember when you would plan a vacation, get to the airport, and every tv in the place was tuned to a news channel? Then you flew up and away and forgot about all that news. When you returned back to your home airport, did you notice they were still reporting on the same stuff as when you left? See, you are not going to miss anything, so take a media holiday!
- Do you miss seeing or talking to loved ones, or special friends or people in your life? Me too! So why not make a connection plan. Begin by setting up a date via Zoom, or Facetime, or some other app. Set a time and day to connect. I find most people have what I call a love tank deficit and really need to see and hear the ones they care deeply about. If you can’t hug them and be with them, this is the next best way. Be aware that some people need more time and attention than you think, while others are good with a long-distance call once a month. Do not force it and look for signs that the person needs more time.
- Spend more time out in the fresh air. I know in most of the world, it is freezing cold, and the weather is not great, BUT you can bundle up and take a quick trip around your home, apartment building, or down the driveway and back. We all need sunshine, snow on our faces, raindrops, and puddles to splash through. This is a simple release of pleasure for you to engage in.
- There are four quarters in a year. So why not give yourself four goals in 2022? Do one goal for each area of your life. One goal for your health. One goal for your social life. One goal for your spiritual life. One goal for your mental health. Okay, you can make one goal for your professional life! So there are five goals.
- Get rid of anything or anyone who does not bring you JOY! I teach, mentor, and coach this almost every day; if you are engaged in an unhealthy, unproductive, or unsatisfying relationship, end it. You cannot be joyful and unhealthy, unproductive and unsatisfied at the same time. One will always win out. People and things travel in a pattern. These things come into our lives for a season, and then move on, and we should move on too.
- Find that one thing that is Joyful and Healthy and engage in it daily! Maybe it is a loved one. Perhaps it is your pet. Digging in the garden and planting might be your thing. Singing or listening and dancing to your favorite music. Joyful, Healthy things are all around you; YOU MUST CHOOSE to engage!
These are ideas that have helped my clients and me over the years and seasons of our lives. We hope they will lift you up and be of benefit to you too!
