Step Right Up!

When I sat down to write this piece, it dawned on me that I'd missed one of my 2023 resolutions. The irony is that the resolution was to write more LinkedIn articles! So I started thinking about how and why I blew this promise to myself. After all, I’m a resilience expert, and at bottom, resilience is all about effective problem solving and goal attainment. This brought to mind an exercise from our children's resilience building program.

One of the things we teach kids – typically middle school-aged – is how to stop procrastinating and how to tackle big tasks. Honestly, it’s pretty basic stuff, especially for grown-ups. But as I reflected on my own failure to achieve, I saw that there was something here for me – and maybe for you as well – so here goes:

Basically, we teach kids to chunk complicated projects into smaller steps, take it one step at a time and then reward themselves after they accomplish each step. It sounds really simple – and it is – but the results can be dramatic. (I've skipped over the obvious step of being sure that we've constructed our resolution in a way that's specific, measurable, and time-bound, but you can learn this from any project management guru.) Here’s the worksheet we use in our workshop. You can try it for yourself:

There’s no question that “chunking” works. But I’m oversimplifying. Our research shows that when facing a large, complex task, kids (and many of us as well) experience emotions that stop them in their tracks. Anxiety and frustration are two pretty common reactions (I tend to go right to anxiety), but some of us might feel sad and others even frustrated or angry. Unless we can dial back these emotions, we’re not likely to jump into action. But calming our non-resilient emotions is easier said than done – especially for us grown-ups – so I’ll save the “how to” on this for my next posting. (And I think I’ll starting writing my next article today – as Rung #2 of my own Step Ladder!)

In the meantime, if you want to do better with your 2024 resolutions – or any other big project you’ve taken on – try stepping it. Let me know if it helps. And please weigh in with your ideas on how to start, manage and complete big tasks.

In the meantime, best wishes for a resolute and resilient 2024!