2020 has bit the dust and by now most new year’s resolutions have already been broken, or if not broken already they are about to be. You could say I am being a tad cynical. You might be right, but I prefer to think of myself as a realist and a pragmatist.
I expect to fail.
My expecting to fail doesn’t stop me creating new plans. Let’s face it, something is refreshing about the calendar clicking over. Although the fresh start is completely arbitrary in truth, we all need to hit re-set from time to time. Jan 1 and a new year is as good of a time to do that as any.
The point of power is always in the present moment.
Louise Hay
So the best time to start something is now.
In fact, it’s the only time you can ever start. Now, I’ve already said, I expect to fail. Failing isn’t the problem if you don’t make failing mean anything about yourself that is. Generally, we make failure mean all sorts of things about us. This is especially true if you compare yourself to someone else. You can almost guarantee that this is coming from the Ego. There is always someone better or worse than you. If you must compare, my suggestion would be to shift that benchmark and only ever compare you to you. That’s an apples for apples comparison after all: Comparing yourself to another is apples to oranges; they are both fruit and completely different at the same time.
So instead of creating New Year’s Resolutions, what if you were to create Games to play instead? You could say it’s just semantics… New Year’s Resolutions or a game to play it’s all the same. But it isn’t—language matters. Once you’ve resolved something, it means you are resolute about it and can be trapped and disempowered by your own words. How likely are you to want to push yourself forward?
Contrast this with playing a game.
For a start, it’s something you play and playing automatically brings in fun and when something is fun you’re far more likely to follow through. Some people take the games they play pretty seriously after all, and they’re still fun, which is the main point.
If you take the significance out of playing games, then all that is left is the playing. Now, what if you created a game that you were sure to lose?
That will make it more interesting…
My version of this is I am playing a game around complaining. I have given up complaining in 2021. That is a game I cannot win. Given I am human, I am bound to fail. I’m going to have to re-set and recommit on this one a few times. We lose games all the time, though, and we step up to the play repeatedly. Mostly with no loss of enthusiasm for the game.
What game are you going to create for 2021?
If you want someone to hold you to account for the games you want to play in 2021 go to https://andreia.solutions/book-a-chat-with-tanja/