New Beginnings

2021.  The year so many people have been waiting for since COVID arrived. Now that it is upon us, are you ready?  Have you made a New Year’s resolution?  People set all kinds of goals at the beginning of a new year, most of which they do not come close to attaining.  Fortunately, there are some strategies for making lasting, positive change.  If you want a new beginning by learning a new skill or establishing a new, healthier habit, then you might want to start with following suggestions.

1.  In taking on a new beginning, you’ll need to clarify your expectations.  We usually focus on how well things will go and how much we’ll enjoy the new ‘us.’  However, if it was so easy to start and sustain a new behavior, we would have much more success in learning new skills.  We need to accept the learning curve and the process of beginning something new.  People who adapt and learn become comfortable with ‘being bad’ for a while.  They accept failures on the way to successfully incorporating something new as the price of admission.  A mandatory toll to get where they want to go.  Consider how babies learn to walk, talk and feed themselves.  Adults celebrate every attempt they make, even the failures.  When we become adults, we expect that we will take off with a new behavior and overcome every obstacle because we set our mind to it.  This attitude actually sets us up for failure.  Every part of our status quo has some reinforcement to it and in order to improve our odds of success with a new start, we will need to address the barriers, obstacles in addition to the benefits.

2. Next, organize the new desired beginning by using a SMART goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.   Doing something new is frequently difficult and research shows that we need to organize the learning of the new behavior/beginning in order form an enduring habit.

Good luck in your new beginning.  Plan well and approach it with an attitude of learning from your mistakes.  We hope 2021 is fantastic for you and your family.