Resolve to Keep your Life and Work Tidy this New Year

by | Jan 23, 2023 | Leadership, Productivity

Japan has the tradition of a deep “spring cleaning” that occurs at the beginning of the New Year. During that time, they clean everything in the house. Every nook and cranny of a typical house is scrubbed, dusted, and refreshed. (Marie Kondo is famous in the US, but she is just one of a legion of similar cleaning gurus in Japan.)

The US has the tradition of the New Year’s resolution. People will pick a key new habit or goal for the New Year that they would love to achieve.

To make year a great year, consider putting these two traditions together and resolve to get rid of those things that will not contribute to your success. For example:

  • Resolve to keep your physical surroundings organized and pleasant. It is likely that a good portion of the coming year will still be remote, so put some thinking into the home office space.
  • Resolve to keep relationships healthy and vibrant. Clear the air with those you can. Minimize the draining effects of those you cannot. Initiate activities that will bring new, positive relationships to you.
  • Resolve to get rid of stinking thinking. Start the day with gratitude. Look at the positive sides of challenges. Don’t get drawn into the morass of negativity that typifies our media today. Jettison those thoughts that say “who do you think you are?” and tune an ear to the positive inner voice that says “I can probably do that.”
  • Resolve to remove things that distract from your most valued goals. Define what would bring you the most fulfilment in the next year (including career, family, and personal goals). Focus your energies there and put on blinders to the rest.
  • Resolve to remove limiting factors that affect your team. Limiting factors may include a specific team member that just cannot make the required adjustment and might benefit from being moved to a role where they are a better fit. Limiting factors may also include lack of specific teams skills like how to innovate together or team behaviors that are not helpful. Whatever is holding the team back from achieving its potential needs to go and be replaced with what will propel it forward.

These are just a few suggestions. You may have some others that come to mind. Whatever the issue is, resolve to clean it up. And also resolve to keep at it. Things will get messy again and will need regular attention. You wouldn’t resolve to clean your kitchen just once a year, would you?