By: Dr Geraint Evans – personal development coach
As we enter 2022 with the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic still very much with us and its totally understandable that you might not be feeling the urge to set and stick by multiple new resolutions. Great if you are, but I’d urge you to not feel too much pressure to do so if you are not feeling it as you might normally do.
I’m all up for positive self-development and daily motivation to achieve your dreams, but it has to work for you. Self-care is of course different for all of us, soonly do what feels right for you, but here are some suggestions to consider trying in 2022as we dive into another new year.
What one big thing would you like to do by the end of 2022?
Outside of any new year’s resolutions you may have made, consider what one thing you could do that would have the biggest impact on your life this year? What objective would you like to achieve or aspect of your life would you want to change? What are you are proud of as you start 2023?
Prioritise your to-do list
We’ve all got a huge to-do list haven’t we – and this time of year it may well be growing with new ideas and objectives (as well as ‘must file my personal taxes on time this year’).
If you haven’t already I’d encourage you to go through and question if it really helping you focus on achieving theimportant goal for you in 2022. It is amazing how much time we can spend on doing tasks that are not as urgent or important as some others that can help us improve things.
Self-Care – what else could you do?
Establishing interests outside of work can be so key to self-care and a decent work-life balance. What hobbies do you want back in your life? Maybe you took something back in lockdown that you now can’t seem to find the time for – or maybe its something you always wanted to take up and try.
Getting quality sleep and regular exercise is also essential to being and feeling productive. Spending more quality time with friends &family can be very positive for us.
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Turning off your screen(s) and reading, or undertaking mindfulness exercises such as deep breathing and mediation can also be very helpful. Even if you’ve tried these before, give it another go.
Avoiding overworking
Last and definitely not least is I’d urge you to reflect on your working pattern. Many of you reading this willbe working in highly pressurised settings, and in often extremely competitive markets. It is not an easy juggling act to maintain a decent work-life balance and perform as we want to in our roles.
Surfing around on social media can also give us a lot of mixed messages at this time of year can’t it? Suggestions that to succeed you now need to plan to rise at 4am every day to work out and then get into your day – and then probably also stay up to 2am to achieve your dreams. This type of strategy does work for some of us, but for many of us it leaves us feeling a bit of a failure for not eating ambition for breakfast.
Quantity does not need to mean quality. It is very possible to still succeed without working a 100-hour work week. As we now work more from home and different locations, it is all to easy to slip into the habit of starting early and work longer hours – but how productive are you really being? Does it really make a difference or is it just meaning you only have work in your life?
There are a variety of other ways to help pace yourself without seeming you are not dedicated to the role – especially with the challenges of presenteeism when working at home. For example, do you really need to get on work email and Teams messages as soon as you wake up?
If you have a job where it demands – or sets an expectation – that this is normal, consider evaluating if this is the job for you.
I hope this article has been useful in giving you some ideas to get focused and evaluate how you are doing things currently. Good luck in 2022 and take care of yourself.
About Author:
Dr Geraint Evans is a personal development coach and the author of Do One Thing (Pearson, £12.99) on sale now. Learn more about his work at www.drgeraintevans.com.
