Now that I am more than halfway through the first month of this year, I have made what I believe to be a significant self-observation. I have struggled to manage the return to work after the holiday break with what I want to for me in this new year.
My mindset needs to change.
My perception has been that I am failing miserably in my personal life while crushing it professionally. The truth is I am focusing too much on work and not enough on me. In my profession my mental ability is my most important tool. Our mental health requires the support of our physical health for peak performance. Therefore, step one should be prioritizing the health of my body.
It sounds so simple. I’m an intelligent, educated person. Why am I struggling with this?
I had a plan. And still I struggled. I believe the answer to my dilemna lies in Chapter 4 – Habits of the Mediterranean Fasting Lifestyle. When I first read the book, I did not give as much attention to this step as I obviously should have done.
So now I need to take a new approach. This is where controling my mindset fits in. Instead of thinking in terms of goals not yet met, I need to concentrate on creating new habits that will help me achieve my goals.
The first habit I need to develop is to put time on my calendar for me just as I do for meeyings and calls for work. Then I need to apply the same set of rules for those personal calendar entries as do for professional obligations: do not cancel without 24 hours notice, do not be late, and always be prepared ahead of time.
Again, it sounds easy. So, let’s see if I can do this. Habit creation has been studied repeatedly. The average length of time it takes to create a new habit is 66 days. Everyone is different, but I will strive to at least be average in this attempt.
Starting now I will cease to refer to the past few weeks as a failure and begin to descrbie this period of time as an “aha” moment. I have identified where I have room for improvement.
I will begin to control my mindset!
