Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for your grace as I took the last two weeks off. 2022 is here and I don’t know about you, but it’s already moving fast in my world. There is always a lot of talk about new year’s resolutions in January and while I love the intentionality around making improvements in our lives, I struggle with the impact that these resolutions typically have. Most people start strong out of the gate and then have trouble keeping that momentum. In a survey conducted by Sundried they found that 43% of people expect to give up on their goals after just one month! And in research conducted by Strava using over 800 million user logged activities, they predict that most people are likely to give up on their fitness New Year’s resolutions on the second Friday of January, what they call “Quitter’s Day”.

One of the major reasons for this is that people try to stretch themselves too far. If you haven’t worked out in months, the likelihood of you going to the gym everyday for the whole year is pretty slim. Trying to do a 180 with your diet and cut out all junk food when the house is full of sugary and fatty snacks is a recipe for disaster. And unless you’re planning a six month sabbatical, you’re probably not going to all of a sudden read the whole growing pile of books in your office by June.

I prefer the “MIBE” approach. As you know that is our acronym for Make It Better Everyday. If we focus on small incremental improvements, we can create habits that are sustainable and then build on the improvements we make. I’m not saying we shouldn’t set lofty goals, I’m just suggesting that we create a plan that is attainable and have realistic expectations for how long it will take us to get there. When you are “MIBE-ing”, the results aren’t sexy at first, but over time amazing things can be accomplished.

The second thing to keep in mind as you’re looking to make improvements in your life, is to focus on a growth mindset. A growth mindset gives us control over our development and takes our ability to make progress out of the hands of the things that are happening TO us. When challenges arise, we resist being a victim and instead ask how we can embrace the challenge and learn from it. Instead of saying “I don’t have the skills to succeed,” we say “I will learn the skills I need to succeed”. Instead of saying “I don’t have enough time,” we say “I will prioritize my time better.”

For those of you that have faltered with your resolutions, don’t despair! It’s a perfect time to start “MIBE-ing.” Take your initial goals, evaluate where you currently are and then map out how you can be just a little bit better tomorrow, think about how can you improve in the next week? Then hit repeat throughout the year. And if you’re still going strong on your resolutions, keep on charging ahead and I hope something in this article helps keep you going for the whole year. Cheers to making 2022 your best year yet!