2022 is ON!

New Year, Same You! Long Live the Anti Resolution Movement.

It’s the middle of the month now, and I wonder how many of you have spent the days since January 1 trying to change something – your hips or lips or parenting or account balance. You’re trying to keep your RESOLUTIONS. 

I find the entire idea of New Year’s resolutions off-putting at best. They imply (or outright assert, if we’re being honest) that you are decidedly not what or where you need to be. Even the word itself, “resolution,” doesn’t make me feel bigger, better, energized, or inspired. It makes me feel like there is a huge mountain to climb and brings up anxiety that I may just not be up to the task. It resonates with want, lack, and goals that might be out of reach.

If New Year’s resolutions are your thing and they work for you, then the only reason you may want to continue reading this is for a glimpse into what goes through the minds of the rest of us;  the members of – let’s call it the Anti-Resolution Movement (ARM). 

Personally, I think this movement might get some traction, and here is why. Recently, I downloaded an audiobook recommended to me by our lead editor and CFO, The Gap and the Gain: The High Achiever's Guide to Happiness, Confidence and Success by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy. Sullivan is a renowned entrepreneurial coach and founder of Strategic Coach and Hardy is an organizational psychologist. The book relays Sullivan’s technique of switching your mindset to spend more time in “the gain” rather than “the gap.” 

Let’s talk about what that means. Sullivan observes that American culture has fully subscribed to Thomas Jefferson’s decree about the right to the “pursuit of happiness.” In other words, consciously or unconsciously, we have adapted to the “pursuit”: the notion that feeling happy,  achieving success or finding contentment are things that live just outside of our reach - there’s a “gap” between us and what we want. And yes, they have data. Did you know that only 14% of CEOs report being happy and feel as if they haven’t achieved much?

This year, with Sullivan and Hardy to back me up, instead of avoiding focusing on the gaps in my own life, and trying to address them by making resolutions, I’ve decided to join the ARM. I’m going to start by living in “the gain.” I’m going to write out a list of eleven things that went really well last year. In the midst of the uncertainty and suffering of the past two years, just the idea of focusing on what went right gives me incentive to think about the best path forward in 2022 without that aforementioned sense of dread. 

I’d love to hear what went really well for you last year and in our next newsletter, I’ll share highlights from my list and some of yours (with your permission, of course – just be sure to include that in your email). 

Let’s live in the “the gain” and elevate the you know what out of ‘22.