Welcome to the end of December. Otherwise known as “stuff my face and take a nap” season.
Now there isn’t anything wrong with taking a break, reconnecting with family and friends, and enjoying the delicious food and drink that accompanies the season. I am all for it and consider the few pounds of bodyweight gained as totally worth it.
However, for too many of us, we carry this laziness over far into the new year. Suddenly it’s March and it hits us that we are behind and only now getting ramped up to really hit some numbers. We have wasted the past couple of months on finding the motivation to actually get some work done, mostly due to the negative inertia from the holidays.
Because let’s face it, we can all come off these holiday months feeling fat and lazy due to all the overindulgence. The solution for many: try to improve their mental state so they have to energy to work.
However, I have found that this is ass-backwards. And research surrounding cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) backs me up.
You see, production is really what drives morale. Getting up and doing is what’s going to improve the way you feel. Putting off action because you feel a lack of motivation, or anxiety, or a bit gloomy becomes a self-reinforcing mechanism for continued laziness.
Remember the Law of Inertia: an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. If you increase your activity level (the force), you can overcome this sluggishness (tendency to rest) in your own life and business and increase the tendency to keep moving and growing.
As this article points out, “…reading, thinking, and talking about something isn’t the same thing as doing it. If you really want to change, you’ve got to start doing it.”
It is usually tough at first. You have to fight your own well-established habits, upbringing, and even culture which surrounds you. It can be uncomfortable, but dedicating yourself to committed, purposeful action will eventually increase your motivation. The end result is a new you and a better life.
And that brings me back to the holidays. The tendency is to do nothing and engage in bad habits. I suggest you try something which has worked for me, which is to eat, drink, be merry – but also visualize what I want for the upcoming year, plan it out and launch into action DURING the rest period to get the ball rolling have that positive inertia carry you to a successful first quarter.
Or—stay sluggish and wake up sometime around March wondering what happened to 2020 already.
Gratitude
The other thing which helps to start the new year in a positive fashion is to keep a spirit of gratitude for the good things you have obtained and experienced, regardless of whether or not this was your worst, best, or simply a mediocre year.
The holiday season is perfect for that – this spirit is already in the air! So try it and improve your outlook and motivation level.
VoloHaus has a lot to be grateful for! As former owners and entrepreneurs, the Volo team is freakishly passionate about helping executives build winning, scalable revenue ecosystems (Plan, People, Process, Sales Tek Stack/Platform, Management & Meetings) that deliver healthy companies. And 2019 was our best year – defined as how many companies we successfully served with that passion. Volo is nearing the 300-customer mark, our breadth and reach has grown vertically and geographically, and more private equity firms have learned to trust and engage our process. We are so grateful for all of it. Thank you!
I hope this quick post inspires you to ACT and keep you on track if you go back to any of your old, negative inertia habits. Act with purpose starting now, and you will win.
Let me know if I can help in any way. Shaun@volohaus.com, 760.815.4464 cell.
Leave a Reply