ALEAP Blog: Water your plants

January – the time to change calendars and set new year’s resolutions. Looking back at past resolutions it seems like setting a resolution just hasn’t gotten me the results I wanted. Maybe it’s because just resolving to change something doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen – you must do it.

Tired of setting resolutions and only sticking to them for a while until I was burned out – I decided this year to do a little research and find a better way to make changes in the new year and beyond. What I found was a new approach – an annual mantra.

Instead of setting one resolution to follow for an entire year, find what you want to change/do better/etc. and choose a mantra to anchor every decision you make for the entire year.

What’s my mantra for 2018? Water your plants.

For anyone who knows me well, or has seen my workspace, I have a thing for plants. But I’m not talking about my orchid or my spider plant named Ralph. By plants I mean the places in my life I want to grow. To grow in those areas, I need to focus my energy there. So, instead of thinking “I wish I was better at x” or “I could do/be x, if I could only x” I’m going to remind myself that I can improve when I focus my energies there.

For more about mantras, and how to choose your own you can read the article I read here: https://www.fastcompany.com/40508579/this-entrepreneur-traded-her-new-years-resolutions-for-a-yearly-mantra

What will your mantra in 2018 be?