What are your thoughts and feelings about the new year/new decade thus far?
Ambition? Encouragement? Anticipation? Dread? Concern? Pressure?
Hopefully, it is more of the former and less of the latter. Remember, pressure is when you perceive that something at stake is dependent on the outcome of your performance. Therefore, if you are feeling some pressure it’s often times the internal kind—“I should do ____”, “I need to ____”, “If I don’t _____”
What can you tell yourself instead to push back on this conflict type of self-talk?
Try challenging the belief that anything is at stake. More often, the conflict language you speak (out loud and inside your own head) is random, reactive, and restrictive (3 R’s). Therefore, from a self-awareness perspective, practice noticing the types of R3 thoughts you are having. Once you have practiced and developed this awareness, you can begin self-regulating by practicing deliberate thought management that includes translating your R3 thoughts to P3 thoughts–productive, possibility based, and purposeful (3 P’s).
If you’ve yet to reflect on 2019, I recommend you do this before too much more of 2020 continues on…
Here is a categorical way I came up with last year to help guide and structure your reflection of the past year.
