So this is the time of year when we have made our resolutions (and statistically speaking already broken a good proportion of them) and are full of optimism for the year ahead.

The problem, of course, is that we are not good at keeping our resolutions. We have already discussed in a previous blog how we should look at Will Power and understand that if we need Will Power to do something we may not be addressing the right issue or have fully understood why we are looking to address it.

At this time of year I work with people full of enthusiasm looking to commit to a series of new activities, whether to get fit, spend more time at home, cook more, learn a language etc.

In most cases it is about doing something rather than nor doing it. So we aspire to spend more time at home or to cook more but we don’t see what we need to do to enable this. So “life” gets in the way. Actually, there are normally two reasons for “life” getting in the way. It can often be the case that someone else’s life gets in our way. It is the demands or expectations of others that stop us delivering on our aspirations. Alternatively, it is our own habits that stop us developing new habits we have identified would be better for us.

I urge people to look, not at what they will do but examine what they will not do. So don’t say I will go the gym more; rather say I will watch less TV or work fewer hours. When we do this we create time, not only, for the new activity, but also create space to identify what we really will value doing with the extra time we now have available.

These steps of giving up create the space and momentum for change. They are often easier to implement and allow us to embrace the new activity as a growth opportunity and a new expression of ourselves rather than as an extra core or activity we have to endure because we feel we should.

This is the time of year for new beginnings as we let go of the darkness and the rest period we have been through. It is now time to embrace the time of year that will soon be upon us; the time of Spring, of new growth as we step out of the earth and start to blossom. It is important we see all these times and phases and give space to the opportunity presented by them.

In our talk on 11^th  we will use the Ancient Calendars and Medicine Wheels of Indigenous people the world over to illustrate where we are, how we can shed old habits and embrace new challenges to lead ourselves and others into 2018

Bank of Ireland Workbench

1 Grand Canal Square
6 pm
Thursday, the 11th of January.