Women in Financial Services
Don’t fall into the trap of seasonal awareness and bliss, you are better than that.
Mark.Freed / 17 Dec 2018
We wish you all a Happy Christmas and Successful New Year.
In her final article of the Year our guest contributor Dr Alessandra Wall gives her advice “Don’t fall into the trap of seasonal awareness and bliss, you are better than that”.
As Christmas approaches articles and inspirational posts on gratitude, good will and new year resolutions have already started to clutter our inboxes and social media feeds. Every time I come across one of these “10-reasons-to-be-grateful-this-Christmas” article I want to pull my hair out. I am a big proponent of self-awareness, so I’m trying to understand this reaction, and I realize that what drives me nuts is that people wait until the end of the year to reflect on life.
Why do we wait for some arbitrarily established season to think about life – what we want from it, what we love about it, and how we can make our world a better place? It frustrates me to no-end that so many people are willing to live 3/4 of the year reactively, then spend three months focusing on themselves, only to return to oblivious living the rest of the year. If I could reach virtually through the screen and shake them I would.
We have this one life, it’s a pretty amazing thing, really! Yet we spend a quarter of it complaining that it’s not what we want it to be, another quarter ignoring all the things we want and need, a third quarter haphazardly pursuing happiness (which is a transient state not something you can get and hold on to all the time), and then three months out of the year we force ourselves to be cheerful, grateful and kind!? It makes no sense!
Are you one of these people?
Are you already starting to plan your resolution for the new year? Can you tell me what they are and why deep down they matter to you? Can you tell me why you haven’t achieved these things already, and what’s going to hold you back from reaching them this year? Can you guarantee that the things you are resolving to do will have a significant impact on your life?
I am hoping some of you are saying yes while reading this, but I know that for most people the answer is no. Most resolutions repeat themselves from one year to the next. We blame circumstances and laziness for why we don’t reach our goals, but don’t consider that there might be a more profound reason we’re not achieving them.
There’s a better way!
This kind of approach to life is what leaves us filled with regrets and “I should have’s”. If you want to thrive and make mistakes that you can grow from rather than regret, then you need to start paying attention to your life now, and stick with it. If you want to live a great story you can’t just think about what’s great or what’s missing between the months of November and January.
Don’t fall into the trap of seasonal awareness and bliss, you are better than that.
Dr Alessandra Wall, a psychologist and coach and now a guest contributor to E2W’s Blog and Newsletters. Alessandra is going to help us in our continued mission to support you in your career path by, over the next few months, contributing a series of articles surrounding career progression, managing work scenarios, overcoming self-confidence issues and other pertinent topics. Some of you may already know of Alessandra thanks to her social media presence, or you may have heard her speak.
Alessandra is based in California and she will be visiting us & the E2W community in 2019. In the meantime, please digest and embrace her articles, engage with us and Alessandra – let us know your thoughts, and help us help you reach your career goals.
Alessandra can be contacted via E2W
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