It is the time of year when our minds turn to self-improvement.
New Year.
We re-affirm our Resolutions from last year and we vow to try harder this year. As we did last year. And the year before that. And we usually fail.
So why do we fail to keep our New Year Resolutions?
One reason is because we do not let go of the past. We get pulled back into old habits too easily. To get a new future we have to do some tidying up. We need to get The Shredder. We need to make the act of letting go irreversible.
Bzzzzzzz …. Aaaaah. That feels better.
Why does this work?
First, because it feels good to be taking definitive action. We know that resolutions are just good intentions. It is not until we take action that change happens. Many of us are weak on the Activist dimension. We talk a lot about what we should do but we do not walk as much as we could do.
Second, because we can see the evidence of the improvement immediately. We get immediate, visual, positive feedback. That heap of old bills and emails and reports that we kept ‘just in case’ is no longer cluttering up our desks, our eyes, our minds and our lives. And we have ‘recycled’ it which feels even better.
Third, because we have challenged our own Prevarication Policy. And if we can do that for ourselves we can, with some credibility, do the same for others. We feel more competent and more confident.
Fourth, because we have freed up valuable capacity to invest. More space. More time (our prevarication before kept us busy but wasted our limited time). More motivation (trying to work around a pile of rubbish day-in and day-out is emotionally draining).
So all we need to do in the New Year is stay inside our circle of control and shred some years of accumulated rubbish.
And it is not just tangible rubbish we can dispose of. We can shred some emotional garbage too. The list of “Yes … But” excuses that we cling on to. The sack of guilt for past failures that weighs us down. The flag of fear that we wave when we surrender our independence and adopt the Victim role. The righteous indignation that we use to hide our own self-betrayal.
And just by putting that lot through The Shredder we release the opportunity for improvement.
The rest just happens – as if by magic.