Get Off The Hamster Wheel – 365 New Beginnings

It’s hard to believe this is the last week of January. Just a few short weeks ago was New Year’s Day.  We  were feeling excited about a new beginning.  Even if we screwed up and got nowhere last year, when the calendar year changes we feel like we get another chance to start over and do it right.

But here we are, into the fourth week of the new year, where many of us have already given up on those new year’s resolutions. We’re back into the same old (bad?) routines that didn’t move us forward towards our goals.

Albert Einstein said:

  “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

 

hamster wheelThe sun rises each morning giving us another chance to work on reaching our goals and dreams.  But it seems like one day drags into another. We feel like we’re on a hamster wheel going nowhere.

Many of us don’t know how to get off that hamster wheel and it’s causing a lot of insanity!

 

Maybe it’s time to change our thinking about “beginnings”.

There are 12 months in the year.  Why don’t we look at the beginning of each month as a fresh start to get it right this time?

What about the 52 weeks of the year?  Each week we get a chance to begin again.  It doesn’t matter if the new week starts on Sunday or Monday or any other day.  Each week is only 7 days and you get a chance to start the next week every 8 days.

The same is true for each day.  That’s 365 chances for new beginnings!

Maybe it’s time to make changes not only at the beginning of this year but at the beginning of each month, week, and day.

Take a few minutes to write down what you did yesterday, last week, last month, and even last year with the following questions in mind.

  1. What successes did you have and what did you do that brought the results you were looking for?
  2. Where did you not accomplish your goals? What did you do or not do that didn’t bring the results you desired?

When you figure out what worked then repeat that action as often as possible.

When you figure out what didn’t work then stop doing it. It didn’t get you the results you were looking for so why continue doing it?  I know that’s easy to say but remember the quote above.  If you keep doing the things that aren’t working what makes you think all the sudden they will work?

Of course we always hear of stories where someone appears to be doing the same thing over and over again until it eventually it works.  What these stories don’t tell you is that the person kept tweaking what they did until eventually they hit on the right formula to make it work.  In other words, they didn’t continue to do exactly the same thing and expect different results. What they did was evaluate their actions and the results they got then slowly changed their actions so they could change their results.

Good habits can help us reach our goals. Bad habits can keep us on the Hamster wheel. One good habit to create this year is taking a few minutes each day, either at the end or first thing in the morning and review what you did that day or day before.  Keep a notebook and write it down. Take a picture and document the progress if you want.

Whatever way you choose to keep track it will help you see what you are doing to get the results you want.  It’s a habit that will help you have a new beginning each day, week, and month, not just at the beginning of a new year.

To a lighter load along the way.

Janice