Fostering a positive mindset for the year ahead

Welcome to the new year! A time of great celebration and optimism for a new year ahead. Except we are only a couple of days into the new year and we are being faced with mind-blowing statistics and the feeling that this year may not be that much better than what it was last year. But we are starting with hope and that has to be a good start. 

How do I know?

I'm assuming that your inbox is being flooded with messages on how to make this your "best year yet". That promise alone is full of hope. The irony is these emails and social posts walk the fine line between inspiration and overwhelm, and it is a very fine line. The notion that anything is possible and having endless opportunities to live your best life can for many people be the very thinking that stops them in their tracks for fear of which is the best decision to make or where to start. In my first book The Power of Conscious Choice, I go deep on how we can get unstuck in the face of overwhelm. You can get an electronic copy here (sorry it is sold out in hard copy). 

What we have come to know is that each year we are met with a choice. Depending on your perspective a new year can be an exciting choose your own adventure or a tale of pre-determined woe of events outside of our control. The reality is what lies ahead is a mix of the two. The year is a choose your own adventure with unexpected twists and turns.

What I'm hearing and seeing right now is that many people do not have the clarity of thought or the energy to be thinking about what the next 12 months could hold for them. But in the next conversation, I hear people wanting to leave behind all of the things that have happened looking to reset, re-energise and regenerate. No matter where you find yourself the one thing we don't need at the beginning of every single year is the piling on of guilt that this could be your best year yet and what you are prepared to do about it! What if we look forward to the year ahead and rather than laying down a very clear path of awesomeness in clearly defined and measurable goals and tick boxes we take a moment to breathe and ask ourselves "What do I need right now?". "What do I need to help me feel calm, fulfilled, and grounded?" I'll let that sit with you for a moment.

What do I need right now?

What do I need to feel calm, fulfilled, and grounded?

Many strategies are being shared at the moment that are all useful, impactful, and motivational. I have used most of them at some point in time, but not all at the same time, all of the time, just some of the time.

Such strategies include:

One word.
Come up with one word that, upon reflection of the year prior, you decide and determine how you would like your year ahead to look. The one word summarises and puts some context on the way you want to live that year. Words like focused, energise, generosity, scale. I have used this for many many years and it does give you a frame for whether or not the decisions that you're making are in line with how you want your year to unfold.

Decluttering. 
Create space in your life by cleaning out the mess from your wardrobe, to your inbox, your kitchen utensils, and even friendships that do not serve you well. 

Setting goals/not setting goals. 
Depending on who you are reading or following goals are either in or they are out. The SMART type where they are measurable and clearly defined has been around for a long time where setting goals in reverse also works where you set your goals like you have already achieved then work back from there. 

Other strategies that have landed in my social feeds and inbox in the last couple of days have been:

• setting intentions
• using positive language 
• create new habits and hobbies 
• limit your social media consumption 
• practice gratitude 
• help others 
• be kind 
• stay present keep a journal 
• spend more time with your family and your loved ones 
• create a vision board 
• visualisation 
• set up processes and time maps 
• connect with a mentor 
• take time out for yourself 
• and more ...

All of these strategies are impactful and useful when creating a life that you choose. I would love to say that I do all of these all of the time but I can honestly say I have done all of them when I needed them. This is quite the list if you are already feeling overwhelmed and exhausted still with the hangover of the year before. Rather than adding to the overwhelm of how this year may or may not play out then the answers to the questions I asked earlier are where to focus your attention right now.

What do I need right now?

What do I need to feel calm, fulfilled, and grounded?

Asking yourself these questions will slow down the whirlwind of activity of ideas, opportunities, and possibilities that may be swirling around you and within you right now. No matter how busy you become, no matter how overwhelming situations outside of your control may seem, when you ask yourself "what do I need right now?", immediately your attention is turned to the here and now. Everything calms down and you can make decisions based on what your current situation needs. As we have seen over the last couple of years events occurring outside of our control can push us off our paths and throw out our laid out plans. 

When working with kids, I pose this same question when a child is nearing overwhelm. With strategies on board, they know that with the question "What do you need right now?", they can pull out familiar and practiced strategies that bring them to the here and now and return them to calm and return them to focus.

When helping our kids to foster a positive mindset for the year ahead, they are looking towards us adults for ways to navigate the uncertainty that faces them. They are looking to us adults to see how it is all done. If they hear adults using language that is negative and full of fear about the uncertainty of the year ahead then, they too will see what is possible through the lens of negativity and fear, and when that happens the year ahead looks bleak. When we make decisions through the lens of fear and negativity, it takes away the power of joy and optimism. Helping our children foster a positive mindset for the year ahead starts with us adults showing them through our actions and our words that joy and optimism are possible in the face of uncertainty and that when overwhelm, fear and uncertainty hit, we have the control to bring ourselves back to the here and now and choose what is the next best step to help us be the best version of ourselves.

What do you need right now? 

Angela 😀