New Year and What Are You Choosing for Your Happiness and Success

Because you know there are two kinds of people in the World — Which kind are you?

Are you the type that loves to make things complicated or the type that loves to simplify things?

Before you answer, I know this question is contextual and dependent on your history and the current situation. But it is a question that is worth asking yourself because sometimes, unknowingly, we can be one or the other and, in some circumstances, both simple and complicated at the same time.

Especially at this time of year when the phenomenon surreptitiously plays out? If you have not done so already, January is the month where most of us are consumed with forgetting and putting away the old and embracing and welcoming the new.

You may notice your default is to want to move towards simple-easy and avoid the complicated-hard? After all, life is hard enough; why make life harder than it needs to be?

Although simple-easy may be our default, some of us recognise that we need to lean into the simple or complicated-hard to make our lives in the long run better. So the question is, in knowing your tendencies and the type of person you are, which community do you choose?

Do you choose the one where bitter experience has taught you that you and resolutions can only ever be a temporary match because you know it will be a matter of days or maybe weeks before comfort or self-doubt takes their hold?

Or do you choose to belong to a small minority that has set their intentions and are steadily honouring them step by step, day by day?

Simple-easy or complicated hard — which do you choose?

For me and for many years, I was a fully paid-up member of the resolutions avoidance community. Constantly choosing the simple-easy because the experience of writing a short or maybe long list of New Year resolutions nearly always ended in a day when my hand would slip off the last rung of the ladder of willpower.

As a consequence, I preempted the outcome and gave up making resolutions. I found myself avoiding and gradually disliking the endless barrage of people and articles professing this year will be my best year ever. I can remember the words where I would listen to people say, “I am going to do X, Y and Z, then for good measure climb Mount Everest, solve world poverty and hunger.”

All power to you, I say, and each to their own, but for me up until this year, I have blissfully wandered through the wilderness of simple-easy and making it up as I go.

And look where that got me!

Blindly following and believing in always there is a later. Foolishly thinking that I don’t need to focus because I have time. Settling for getting by, surviving and believing I was happy. Not recognising I want and could do so much more.

All this was my attitude and philosophy until last year. Then, I got to the point where I was tired and frustrated and knew something had to change. I wanted more than getting by.

So I began to reflect, took a long honest look at myself, and decided that maybe it was time to take control of my life and get out of the wilderness. To help me, I worked with a fantastic holistic wellbeing coach, Stephie Be.* She helped me change my mindset, overcome my frustrations and see that life can be so much more if we embrace who we are and ultimately choose.

As I write an almost confession I know in my heart this year will be different.

So now January 2022, here I am, a member of the latter community, hoping and planning to be part of the small minority that will set their intentions and see them through. Who knows, maybe I will consider tackling climbing Mount Everest and make this my best year ever! But one thing I know, there is often a reason why specific quotes persist. As Benjamin Franklin famously said.

“If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — Benjamin Franklin

As I write an almost confession, I know in my heart this year will be different. I have grown as a person, and I know and want more. But knowing and wanting are only one side of the equation. On the other side, there is the complicated business of doing the work and seeing it through.

To help me, I have in my tool chest a wealth of wellbeing resources and up my sleeve a master manoeuvre to conjure a new trajectory and make the complicated seem easy.

What is this? I hear you ask, well, let me tell you.

Largely thanks to a book recommended by the amazing Kristina Karlson,* I have a new way of thinking and approaching my goals. If you don’t know, Kristina is the Founder and Creative Director of the global Swedish design and stationery business, kikki.K. She runs amongst many inspiring activities a Personal Growth Club — GROW. In the club, we read and discussed the fantastic book, The Slight Edge, written by Jeff Olsen, where he discusses the power of daily habits.

In reading the book, my biggest takeaway has been the importance of focusing on consistency and small sustainable changes to get you where you want. As Jeff often says in his book.

It is easy to do something and just as easy not to do something. You have to decide.

So this year, I am back in the business of resolutions, and I am setting intentions while knowing that I have behind me tremendous resources and support to make the simple or complicated easier.

I hope you find the same for you and that you plan your Mount Everest. Remember, success comes from each little step you take, not from expending great energy at the beginning of the year in unsustainable leaps and bounds.

The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer. — Fridtjof Nansen

Thanks for reading. I wish you a wonderful, healthy and prosperous New Year. Have fun 😊

[*] I get no benefit in recommending these wonderful people other than the satisfaction of knowing; sharing is caring, but most of all, I get the opportunity to share with gratitude how much they have helped me grow.

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