There’s always time for a new start
By mid-March, people have usually forgotten their New Year’s Resolutions, let slide any new habits they wanted to create and returned to everyday life.
So much pressure is put on one day – 1st January. We fall into the trap of setting up year long targets and promise to change several things at one time. If we give ourselves the chance to stop, we realise we’ve fallen into the same old patterns of behaviour, we get annoyed with ourselves, think we can’t get anything right and give up.
I’m not much of a fan of New Year, precisely because of this ridiculous pressure that we put on ourselves. However, I am a firm believer of setting goals, intentions and targets (whatever you like to call them). Without them I find I drift along and yet act surprised when nothing’s changed. Not only do we need to set goals and intentions, but we need the time to reflect on how we’re doing and whether they’re still the things we want to go after. If not, that’s okay - it’s time to change our destination or how we’re getting there. Waiting and leaving it until another year has gone by is going to leave us exactly where we are, or worse, further down the wrong road.
There is absolutely no need to essentially put all your eggs in one basket and only set goals at one time of year – there are so many other times you can do this.
I was reminded recently of this last Monday – which was the Spring Equinox, often seen as the first day of spring. A new season is a great time to reflect on the season just gone and make plans for the one upcoming. If you use the seasons (certainly here in the UK where there are traditionally 4, although the weather sometimes argues with that), then you get 4 opportunities a year to reflect and restart. That’s surely better than once at New Year?
Here are some other ideas you can use:
Personal significant dates
If you want to do this work annually, then instead of using the 1st January, you use your birthday, or another significant date for yourself.
Sunday Evenings
Many of us dread the Sunday evening feel of going back to work the next day (if you work shifts, you will have something similar). Instead of allowing this feeling to put a downer on the weekend, use it to be productive and plan the week ahead and think how the week before went.
Months
We all know them, and our diaries and calendars are set up around them. They are regular and all about the same length. You could use the turning of a calendar as a reminder to start over.
Sports seasons
Many sports have on and off seasons (domestic football plays in the UK from around mid-August to end of May), the cricket seasons tends to be April – end of September, golf is mid-September to the following August, Formula 1 is March – November. Pick your own favourite sports and see how they work for you.
The Solstices / Equinoxes / Sabbats
The Spring Equinox also marks Ostara – a pagan festival and one of 8 known as sabbats, which are roughly 6 weeks apart throughout the year. The previous one, Imbolc was on 1st February – and that is also sometimes known as the first day of spring. Some people in the pagan community will use the sabbats as markers throughout the year to do their goal setting and reflecting – meaning they do it 8 times a year. An alternative to every Sabbat, would be perhaps to use the shortest and longest days of the year - the solstices (the longest and shortest days) to give you 2 opportunities to reflect and reset. If you add in the Equinoxes (when the days are of equal lengths - there are 4 chances to reset.
The moon cycle
Every month (or so) we have a new moon and a full moon two weeks later. You could use one or the other – or even both to set intentions, deadlines or as checking in points.
Feasts / Festivals
These could include important, regular dates such as Christmas, Easter, Bank Holidays, school holidays – something that fits with the regularity you want to work with and that you won’t forget.
Each day
This reminds me of a wonderful quote from one of my favourite books, "Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" (Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery).
If you want, you can start each day with a few minutes to set your intentions for the day and in the evening reflect on how you did and what lessons you’ve learnt.
So, if you’re one of the many who has already forgotten what they wanted to achieve this year, if you’ve made no progress, or started well and slipped off the habit track, this is your reminder that you don’t need to wait for another New Year to get back to your plan. It’s never too late to restart. Take a few minutes to revise what you want to do now, and then go for it.
If you need accountability, then come and join us in The Coaching Circle where we set our goals and intentions every Monday and celebrate our wins and lessons on a Friday. We now have weekly co-working sessions online where you are supported and encouraged to get things done and make progress.
If you’d like some help to do this work by yourself, then my undated Reflections Journal is just what you need.
