Vision Board 2014

Happy New Year! As a coach, I love this time of year because no one is still living in 2013–everyone on the globe has turned a page. Whether we individually have made New Year’s resolutions or not, collectively we acknowledge that the reset button has been pressed and that things are beginning afresh.  The New Year stretches before us, unblemished.

Many of us create vision boards or make resolutions during this time of year–and most of us these resolutions are abandoned by late January.  Whether or not you believe in making resolutions to live up to or into, each of us makes decisions about how to live and work.  These decisions are not always conscious or healthy, but they are powerful and oftentimes unwavering.

Here are some resolutions I have heard recently:

“I resolve not to learn this new software application that our organization has adopted.  It is too hard, I don’t get it, it’s boring, and my work-around suits me just fine.”

“I resolve to keep working here even though my heart isn’t in it. It’s too hard to find another job–the economy hasn’t rebounded yet, so I’d better not move on–and I don’t even know what else I would do anyway.”

“I resolve not to improve this working relationship with my colleague.  It’s too uncomfortable to really talk about things with him/her, plus, s/he is a jerk and I don’t owe him/her anything.  I resolve to let others on our team deal with the fact that we barely tolerate each other.”

OK, so I lied.  No one said these actual words to me, but if I listen for the subtext beneath, this actually IS what they have resolved. And these are the sorts of destructive resolutions that people are often persistent about keeping.

I raise them this starkly as an invitation to have a look at your own (unconscious, perhaps) resolutions.  Are there things you have resolved to live with or make permanent “work-arounds” for?  Are there people, environments or cultures that you tolerate because you have resolved not to rock the boat, or to step out of your comfort zone?

Rather than resolving to institute a new healthful behavior, consider weeding out old resolutions that choke your possibilities and potential in 2014.