Greetings to you as we rapidly approach the change of years! Have we ever waited so much for the beginning of a New Year? A ritual for some at this time is to make Resolutions for the New Year. This year I am wondering whether there is any energy left to do much of anything? Let me make a case for some pluses for making Resolutions as well as offer a few suggestions to facilitate some success.

In this place I have reflected on the importance of developing Resilience – the ability both to prepare for challenges as well as rebound from adversities & challenges. I see making a few Resolutions as a way to help develop Resilience.

I’d suggest a few simple steps that might help finding success in our Resolutions –

1. Take some time to take stock of your life – when I working, we did annual inventories for the products we had in our warehouse so we knew accurately what we had. So, I am suggesting taking an inventory what is in your warehouse at this point in your life.
2. Acknowledge that things that are going well in your life, your accomplishments over the past year & pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for these good things.
3. Acknowledge the places where you would like to make some changes.
4. Choose one change you would like to make, realizing that this change might be challenging – for example, because you have been doing this for a pretty long time, a habit has developed & acknowledging changing habits can be tough work, especially if we have been doing this for quite awhile.
5. What are one or two things you can do to begin this change; here, we are trying to break the change into manageable pieces, not trying to shoot for the moon. For example, let’s say the change you would like to make is exercising more. It probably wouldn’t help to set a goal of walking every day for an hour. I’d suggest something like beginning with walking every other day for fifteen minutes & seeing how this goes. I believe in beginning small & leveraging successes. If this works, you can expand the next week; if it doesn’t, you can scale back for the next week until you find a beginning point that you can do. This means taking success & failure out of your vocabulary & discovering what works to get you moving in the direction yo want to move in.
6. ​Often some accountability is helpful in making a change – that is, someone who knows what you are trying to do & can support you in that

So, from your personal inventory,, what is a Resolution you would like to make for 2021? Break it down into manageable pieces so that you can begin to make this change. I wish you well in this process as we begin a New Year. I am always open to your feedback to what strikes you from what I have shared – that way we all keep learning together.

As we begin a New Year, I'd ask you to ponder your intentions for 2017.  Does expressing gratitude figure in your intentions for the new year? If not, consider being more intentional about expressing gratitude this New Year. ​

I'd also ask you to ponder what you are grateful for in 2016. Be specific as you jot down some of your reasons for gratitude. Please comment below!