Do you live life or does life live you?
Are you feeling a bit of anxiety at the start of this new year?
You might be if you resonate with at least one of these statements:
You feel a bit bewildered and overwhelmed with your choices/opportunities.
You feel stuck thinking about what your next step might look like (maybe you want to step into more creativity, autonomy, fulfillment, etc.)
You want to break free from toxic situations but find it hard to do so.
As you enter into this new year, and you have no idea what might be in store for you, I want you to realise that you are in control of your ambitions, your drive, your purpose, your momentum, and the tone that you want to set for your life and work.
So I invite you to reflect on these questions:
What's going to be my drive this year?
How will I lead my life?
Keep in mind that the purpose or drive that you set for yourself can be fluid. There will always be things beyond your control, like the pandemic, to shape your vision for what is next for you. But what I want you to do is realize that you have power and should and want to shape that vision.
The myth that purpose is sustained every single day
It's a myth that purpose and meaning are constantly sustained every single, throughout your working day. Katherine Bailey and Adrian Madden interviewed about 135 people for an MIT Sloan Management Review. When they interviewed people ranging from lawyers to priests and garbage collectors, they realized that working consistently in a deep level of meaningful mode and operation isn't sustainable.
There will be moments throughout your working day and your working lives where you don't enjoy what you're doing. You shouldn't be forced into thinking that purpose and meaning in your work mean that you'll be forever joyful. While I am a happiness consultant and changemaker, I believe in adopting a range of emotions and accepting that there are elements of your job that you don't particularly love enough. But there are other parts that you lean into wholeheartedly, and it's enough to make you stay. Sometimes the bad moments are making space for greatness, and it's also stretching you to learn about yourself, how you interact with people, what you want to do differently, and how you can show up with a greater realization of your role in the work ecosystem.
So when you think about purpose and leading your life with intention, you've got to realize that purpose is often a very poignant way of showing up. At the moment, you don't often realize that you're doing purposeful work. So it might be that when you look back through your reflections for last year, you might recognize that amid the anxiety of your work, you will find that rich level of joy when you look back and find that you still did excellent work or unleash a part of yourself you didn’t expect .
The importance of continuous reflection
One thing I help my clients to understand and appreciate is that purpose might be episodic; it might be that there are peak times where you're generating strong positive experiences around how you're working. When you have those moments where you're thriving and feeling very much in flow. We have to capture those moments through continuous reflection because it’s all too easy to just remember the bad. At the start of this year, I encourage you to set up an achievement diary, or even just begin to note down at the end of the day:
What are the core things I'm proud of?
What did I deliver today that made me smile?
Why did I achieve some praise?
When you reflect on these moments, you're so much more in tune with your efforts, abilities, skills, and momentum versus looking outside and allowing the distractions of life to take you off course. Plus when it comes to December you’ll have much to celebrate and marinate on!
Before the pace of this years gets relentless, collect ways about how you can ground yourself, your thoughts and your identity, and the work that you want to be in alignment. How are you going to create a life that you want to live versus just walking without intention and allowing life to live you. It's easy to be swept up in the uncertainty of what the new year might bring but just know that you can anchor yourself in your drive and purpose.
If you are ready to start your year with intentionality and make changes that walk you towards your purpose, join us for our Changemaker Experience on “Making Changes that Stick’.