New Year: New Goals

The first month of the year can be a tricky time for lots of people. For some people, their last payroll run was in the middle of December and they have to make ends meet until the end of this month. That can cause stress levels to rise.
We’re also back into a working routine. And that means early rises – in the dark and the cold. And then there’s the school run. The distant memory of Christmas and the knowledge that the next ‘break’ isn’t until Easter.
These are the sorts of (general) issues which members may face when working with clients over the first few weeks of any new year.
For us, it’s an opportunity for us to be able to provide help and support for our clients. It’s a chance for them to be heard and it’s a chance for them to chat. To gain that reassurance that everything’s going to be okay.
The importance of remembering our training and our natural ability to listen, empathise and focus on ensuring the meeting’s thinking remains focused in the pre-frontal cortex is crucial for success.
Likewise, checking-in with our supervisors at some point during the month can be helpful for us as we process our own feelings around the start of 2025.
And, of course, this year may cause additional angst for some of our clients. For those in the US, there is the inauguration of a new President in a few weeks’ time.
France is currently reeling in its own political instability. The UK has had its own tricky start to 2025 with bad weather affecting communities around the country.
On a (very much) lighter note, 17 year old Luke Littler recently became the youngest ever PDC World Championship winner when he won the darts championship at Alexandra Palace!
Primitive brain thinking: preferring the status quo
But back to the bigger news events and the primitive brain doesn’t like change. It prefers the status quo in life. Any change (even positive) can be perceived to be a potential threat. And that extends to the larger world platform.
The wise words of being granted the wisdom to change what we can and accept what we cannot alter seems to fall into place here. Focusing on a client’s ability to adapt to situations they cannot change can be a useful consideration in our work.
Likewise, we can focus on someone’s ability to cope. Coping is an often overlooked key strength. Sometimes someone might not feel that they are ‘coping’ but they’ve managed to make it to the practice room and that’s surely worthy of our gratitude.
They could have cancelled. They could have not turned up. Instead, they’re here and they’re chatting with us. That shows fortitude, courage and tremendous strength. It is, perhaps, something we can reflect on when we’re working with them.
New Year: New Goals
The gym is always busy at this time of the year (I’ve just booked into a normally empty class and I was lucky to get a place)! This is a time where people have set New Year’s resolutions. Some of them are easy to accomplish. But some aren’t.
If a client books in to help with stopping smoking then this can be a fairly straight forward session for us to undertake.
Afterall, if someone is determined to quit and we can provide them with the positives to engage in a life away from the tobacco habit then we should see success.
Equally, highly ambitious goals that are unrealistic can see someone adopt an ‘all or nothing’ approach to the therapy. An example could be the person who decides to get healthy – and run an ultra-marathon.
It’s a wonderful goal to aim towards BUT an ‘all or nothing’ approach may see them become despondent. The Miracle Question allows us to breakdown the challenge into those all-important manageable steps towards the wonderful outcome.
And that wonderful outcome doesn’t have to be ground breaking. It can be something very simple. Achievable. Something which can manage our expectations and still deliver a successful outcome for ourselves.
Perhaps they aim to complete a 5K challenge. And then the 10K before moving to a half marathon. They may never get to run the Marathon des Sables but at least they’re still going to get medals for completing a 5K. And 5K is still a long way to run.
A bunch of 5K medals on the mantelpiece means we’ve achieved something and that’s surely better than having a passing thought about what it might be like to dust off the trainers and go for a jog.
Happy New Year!