A "New"man State Of Mind

We see on social media (especially in our profession) the slew of people posting their New Year's Resolutions (NYRs), and I think we all know how most of them work out. Actually, I was curious to see just how many people (on average) complete their NYRs, and the data is telling:??

43% of all people expect to fail before February, and almost one out of four quit within the first week of setting their New Year's resolution. Most people quit before the end of January, and only 9% successfully keep their resolutions (link to source)

I don't know about you, but this is why I believe that NYRs stink. The pressure of trying to do something new (that maybe I haven't done before) and keeping it up through the hustle and bustle of life is hard. So, instead, may I propose focusing on your state of mind, creating the intention, and finally putting something into action? Join me as I explain further.

Intentions are good!

Oh, if only all of my intentions worked out the way I wanted them to...

Intention = a thing intended; an aim or plan. Please read that last word again. "PLAN." I believe plans are underutilized, or (sometimes) underappreciated for the structure and balance they can bring to our work & lives. Plans require you to slow down, think through, and visualize steps and processes which you may not have considered. For example, if my intention is to cook tonight - have I gone through the necessary steps to ensure there is food in the house? Do I have all the ingredients? Do I need a recipe? If my intent is to cook, what do I need to plan to ensure I?can?cook? Intentions (or in this case, plans) are essential to get started.

Activate without Overwhelming Yourself.

What are plans without action? If the goal is to actually "do the thing," how do we make that happen? Going back to cooking, because this is an honest-to-goodness struggle for me, actions look like: going to the store to acquire food, defrosting my protein option, chopping some veggies, making a brown butter sauce (wait - what?), burning the brown butter sauce (dang it!), panic stir the veggies into the pan to cover up my ADHD burned butter, and finally; sip a glass of wine like Kermit The Frog all while pretending that nothing has happened. And then, if you're like me, (usually) before I ever get to the "burn the butter" stage; the anxiety of actually DOING THE THING sets in, and I get analysis paralysis, where I overanalyze everything I need to do to get the thing done, feel completely overwhelmed, and then call Uber Eats instead. Phew - what a mess. So how do we move intention into action without overwhelming ourselves in the process?

Start with the correct state of mind.

Seriously, how do we get things done without doubling our anxiety?

Enter Eric Plantenberg. Who says the state of your mind + your intention + the action is how you ACTUALLY "get things done." I encourage you to watch his?TED TALK about The Anatomy of Results.??I'll let him be the expert here. But, in summary, he talks about how focusing on your state of mind (60%) adding with your intention (30%), and topping with action (10%) is the key. He also mentions that the biggest impacts we see & experience (in work and life) come from all the little actions we've taken over time.

Kind of like bricks. Hear me out. (And shout out to Christa Semko who taught me this the other day).

A brick on its own may not seem very special or important. But when you lay the bricks together and on top of each other, soon you'll see a structure start to form. The greatest things in civilization have been created brick-by-brick, stone-by-stone, and piece-by-piece. Little actions, put together, have a big impact. One more time for the people in the back!?Little actions, put together, have a big impact.?Brick by brick. Day by day.

This is the vision I have for my team. As we start to solidify our planning and ideas for the year to come, I will be doubling down on our state of mind. And I mean it, we're really going to meditate & ponder it. And when the time is right, we'll discuss how each individual's state of mind + intention + action will impact the things we want to accomplish as a team. We'll focus on what little things can we point to daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and finally in a year to show progress and impact.

All things with patience and balance.

I love my team, and if there is one thing I know for certain, it is that each of them (including myself) comes to the table with immeasurable gifts. I cannot wait to see what is unleashed as we center our NEW state of mind and work together to build something spectacular!?

Tune in next time when I talk more about how to successfully burn your brown butter.

Acknowledgements:

Thank you to the Employer Brand Team Dell Technologies for the beautiful photos. Specifically a massive hug and shout out to Samuel Gutierrez and Elizabeth Galvin, MBA for allowing me the opportunity to be part of their employee brand campaign.

Another huge hug and thank you to Jim Hahn , Christina Nguyen and Christa Semko for their mentorship.

And where would I be without Bryan de Zayas as our Social Business Sr. Director and my team of rockstars: Annette Maya , Arleen Diaz , Bethany Cathey, M.Ed. , Cady Jackson, MA, MEd , Gretchen Halle , and Suzanne Doughty . Thank you for enriching my life, and helping formulate the bricks we're using to build the future.