Spring into Action

It’s inevitable. Every year around this time I get that restless feeling that some call spring fever. You know, that sense of urgency that creeps up on you when you look at the calendar and think, “How is it May already?... Where has the time gone?”. For me, it’s an annual invitation to examine the progress I’ve made toward the goals I’ve set out to accomplish this year while there’s still time. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. There’s nothing like a looming deadline to light a fire under you!

Anyone else feeling the need to check in with yourself and take an honest look at how those New Year’s resolutions are coming along? If you’ve silently answered yes to that question, how about we do this together and make some collective progress? But first, we have to establish an important ground rule: No negative self-talk allowed. Or as my coach often reminds me, “Tell your inner critic to f*ck off”. Love her... my coach, not my inner critic. As a side note, some people say it’s helpful to give your inner critic a name, to create some distance so that you realize that what it ‘says’ about you in the form of thoughts about yourself doesn’t define who you are. So I did. I call mine pesat de collons. True story!

But I digress. It’s probably obvious to you, but worth stating anyway, that the reason you’re not allowed to feel bad about what may feel like a lack of progress toward your goals is that it’s unproductive to dwell on things we can’t change – in this case, our past. Instead, we’ll focus only on what we do have control over. The idea is to be both honest with and kind to yourself.

What goals do you want to accomplish this year? Did you make a list of them back in January? It’s likely you may want to pursue multiple goals simultaneously in different areas of your life – health, fitness, work, relationships, finances and the list goes on. While this is admirable, it can also feel overwhelming trying to stay on track with them all. It might feel like there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to carve out time to work on the things you care about most.

What if instead of trying go after all of them, you shifted your focus toward a single goal – your number one priority? First, you’ll have to define what that is of course. This might require you to spend some time reflecting deeply about what truly matters most to you. Once you’re clear on this, give yourself permission to go after this one thing with all your heart. By focusing your time and attention exclusively on one single thing, you’re guaranteed to make faster progress because your motivation and energy will increase as you start to see the results of your dedicated efforts. Curiously, when you start making meaningful progress toward the thing that is most important to you, you’ll have more time available to work toward your other goals.  

What do you say? Are you willing to give this approach a try? What is that number one priority for you this year... that single thing that matters more than everything else? Let’s do this thing!

By Carla Gordillo @polyglotsomm