#1.20 Intro to 2017 - Rekindle your New Years Resolutions

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Hi there and welcome to the Good Work Revolution pa podcast all about share interesting ideas and stories on creating work for wellbeing, fulfillment and positive impact. I’m your host Kate McCready. I’m a strategic and human centred designer and coach and I’m all about activating the potential in people and organisations to do do good via their work: For themselves, others and the world.

So welcome back to the Podcast for 2017! I’m excited to be back on board after a nice long break. I hope you managed to get some R&R over the Christmas and new year period. I was lucky to be able to get away to the beautiful Tasmania for a few week. For my international listeners, that’s the little, often forgotten island down the bottom of Australia. It’s got some beautiful untouched wilderness which I had the pleasure of hiking through. It was an amazing reminder for me of how important it is in work and life and business to get out into nature. There’s really no better way to disconnect in our hyper connected world.

Starting in the Lunar New Year

So 2017! I know we’re a fair way in, but I decided my year was really starting in the Lunar New year. If you’re feeling like the months are already catching up with you I really encourage you to do the same. It really takes the pressure off. It means we’re a little under a month into the year. Not two.

Introducing the Good Work Revolution 2017

So I thought given we are at the start of the year I’d do something a little different and do a bit of an introduction to the year and a bit of what you’re likely to hear on the Podcast.

So after some feedback from some listeners last year about enjoying the shorter episodes. They’re easier to fit in apparently, I’ll be trying to pop a few more of these in the mix. So rather than just reflecting on some past episodes, I’ll also be sharing some things that I’m pondering and exploring myself. All on the theme of doing good work of course.

Some things that are really front in centre in my world at the moment are themes around creating work life harmony, conscious work, leadership, culture and business, the difference between positive impact and positive experience, the impact technology is and will have on us as it becomes more and more integrated into our working lives - and something that I’m finding super fascinating right now - the impact of AI on the working world and what that means for the human working experience. So expect these themes to be drifting in and out of the episodes, as well as all the other lovely surprises we’ll get along the way.

While last year the focus was more on business owners, this year I hope to introduce a few more guests who are working within a larger organisational context and how they are bringing good work to their workplaces, culture, teams, customers and communities.

If there’s someone you’d love to hear from or a topic you’d love to hear me explore, please drop me an email at kate@katemccready.com and I’ll do my best to see what I can do.

Not keeping up with new year’s resolutions?

So - while we’re on the theme on new year I thought it might be great to dig into new year’s resolutions and goals for a moment. So we are almost two months on from January first - a time where many of us reflect, reassess, and set a bunch big hairy audacious goals for ourselves. It can be very easy to let these fall by the wayside however.

Every year I create a one word goal for myself. You may or may not have heard of this technique, but essentially you choose a single word to act as your guiding beacon for the year. My work was ‘Maker’ as I really wanted this year to be about getting out of thinking mode and into doing and creating mode. The idea is you really try and bring the word into everything you do, really embody it. My other strategy, was creating some work-life principles. This is something I’ll share more about on my website in the coming month. If you’re interested to hear about it, head over to katemccready.com and sign up to receive updates.

So february came around and my ‘Maker’ goal had really gotten very little attention. And the only work-life principle that had got much air time was one about making space to nurture and energise mind, body, creativity and spirit. (Which was pretty easy while on holiday for a month).

It can be so easy for us at this point to beat ourselves up about why we haven’t done what we set out to do and give up. Because hey, what’s the point in starting when we’re already so far behind.

Using resolutions guilt to your advantage

But I’d like to plant a little seed for any of you who may also feel you have not really lived up to your new year’s intentions. Take your guilt and turn it into the fuel you need to take action. Sit down with yourself, perhaps even book out an hour in your diary to have a meeting with yourself about it.

Check with yourself how you’ve been going with your goals and resolutions and if some have really not had much attention, write out all the reasons why not. What are all the things that have gotten in the way? Once you have your list, see if there are any themes coming out. Then for each major theme or barrier, list a few strategies for how you could deal with it.

One of my big barriers was having too many things in my head, too many projects, ideas, plans etc. What this caused me to do was jump around from task to task, without every really finishing anything. I came up with a few strategies for dealing with this.

The first was to ask myself, what is the most important thing I need to do to move me forward today/right now. Then do that thing and only that thing until it was done. No brainer right?

The second was create the mother of all to do lists. I got everything out of my head and onto paper, then prioritised my list into do now, do next, do later and do at some point. All of a sudden my head was clear to think about things that mattered and it was easy to see what was important and what wasn’t. Recording and posting this podcast was one of the top things on the list. So hooray for getting that done! Now I know the thought of to-do lists can be awful for some people. But rather than thinking of it as things you have to do, try thinking of it as things that no longer need to rattle round your head and take up precious space.
 

You’ve still got time to fulfil your new year’s resolutions

So yes, you’ve still got time to turn those goals and resolutions around. In fact, you have over ten months. We aren’t even a quarter of the way through the year yet. Just think of what you can achieve!

So I’m going to get back to my to do list. On it is finishing a couple of freebies I’ve got in the works including a white paper I’m writing on something I’m calling ‘Positive Benefit Experiences’ working title. And a short guide on ways you can bring more good into your work. So if either of those sound interesting to you, again, head over to the website and sign up for updates.

Ooh! And that’s one other thing I forgot to mention, I have just launched my brand spanking new website! In an effort to get it done, not perfect there are a few things that still need a bit of work, but check it out if you’re looking for a five minute distraction.

So that’s me rounding out this intro to 2017. I look forward to gracing your earphones or speakers again soon. Of course if you’d like to continue the conversation come on over to the Good Work Revolution facebook group and introduce yourself.

And until next time, keep up the good work.