A good friend reached out to me this week to ask for some advice on doing a mental reset this January.
She figured, rightly, that I value leaders building mental resilience as well as business resilience. And she asked I would have some resources or personal insights to share, that could help her do a reset for 2024.
Yes, I love to talk about annual reviews and OKRs and setting goals this time of year. Yet, I’m also big on taking stock of how we are doing on a personal level and setting goals in that area as well.
I just don’t talk about it as much. Or maybe not as loudly.
I must admit, she caught me a little off guard. I have been hard at work turning over the year from a business perspective this week. And yes, I do have resources and a process for doing a personal reset. I just haven’t tabled doing it, yet. Her reminder made me put it on my personal calendar for this weekend.
I’m big on taking responsibility for your own mental wellness. I’m not saying that in a shaming way – as it’s also important to know when we need help. Part of taking responsibility, is finding the help you need.
I believe taking responsibility is about building habits that build up our mental resilience. Important for business leaders.
Often as leaders we need to find a way to be okay. Even when things are not okay. To be able to cultivate calm. Because it’s the place in which we make our best decisions. And because we can spread calm, just as easily as spread panic. Though it can seem less obvious that we have that influence.
But how do we build that kind of mental toughness in ourselves?
I believe, one key mental wellness habit is to periodically take a step back and think about how you are doing and set some wellness goals.
In truth, it is a lot like how I do a business annual review. It’s just the content and the questions can be a little different. I shared with my friend, a process of these steps:
- First complete the year 2023.
- Do a stop/start/continue of what is happening.
- Set goals and/or objectives.
- Create a plan of action for 2024.
Well, maybe the language is a little different, too. The word complete is different from the word review or reflect.
It is more psychological. It speaks of closure. To review what has happened and seek closure around it. Good or bad. Then you are ready to move on.
It made me think. Why we don’t do the same thing in the business annual review? Maybe it is all coming full circle for me.
Time to seek closure on anything that happened I 2023– good or bad. Draw a line under it. Let go of 2023. Then calmly go forward with a plan of action for 2024.
In each arena of our lives.
