Small, brave steps for 2022
I have decided that my mantra for the new year is going to be “small, brave steps.”
That could mean telling you a story, including personal details of the kind I sometimes avoid. Or it could mean sharing more of what I’m doing.
It could mean asking someone for help (cringe), or submitting my writing for possible publication (which completely opens me up for rejection, and I have to be okay with that). Or it could mean setting and holding a boundary with a loved one.
For the past four months, I’ve had a greeting card propped up open on my desk. It’s from an American Greeting subsidiary called Roseville Press, and it says “She put on her brave and decided to be amazing.” I am not positive that the card is what inspired my mantra, but it certainly comports with it nicely.
And yes, the candle I have burning right now does indeed say “deeper wisdom/fewer fucks” on it, and it’s also something I am down for. (The candle came from a place called RELIC in Lexington, Kentucky, and it smells amazing.)
One of the reasons I went with “small, brave steps” as my mantra for 2022 is also a result of watching the press conferences with the Philadelphia Eagles this past season, particularly with Coach Nick Siriani and QB Jalen Hurts. Both of those men have emphasized that their focus is on improving by 1% each day.
Each week after games and while preparing for upcoming games, whether they won or lost, Nick Siriani said his focus was on analyzing what they were doing well, and what needed improvement. His focus was always on the team getting just 1% better each day.
In other pressers, it was obvious that Jalen Hurts, the quarterback, bought into that theory. He refused to look ahead at the playoffs and whether the team would or wouldn’t make it into the playoffs. Instead, he kept the focus on making small, regular improvements. Just 1% each day, and each outing.
The team focus on constant, incremental improvement meant that a team that reached the middle of the season with a losing record managed to clinch a spot in the playoffs this past Sunday after a win over Washington (and a loss by the Vikings to Green Bay in a later game). And still, they are focused only on the those continued improvements and on getting themselves ready for the last game of the regular season this Saturday.
You don’t have to be a football fan to appreciate their work ethic, and how their heads are on straight. As Siriani said following a loss in October: “You’re a work in progress at all times.” He’s also big on not “riding the wave of the season”, by which he means that it’s important to stay unattached to the outcome of any given outing.
As he said, if you have the highest high when you win and the lowest low when you lose, you aren’t going to fare well over time. If you are so inclined to glean these sorts of insights from an NFL coach, check out this video from the week after the Eagles lost to the Broncos in October.
The science behind the idea of continuous improvement
This concept of steady improvement is one of the things discussed in detail by author and inspirational speaker James Clear in his book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. It’s part of the concept of “continuous improvement,” where you strive to be just 1% better each day in some way.
One percent doesn’t sound super hard, right? It also doesn’t sound like you are expecting all that much of yourself or your progress. And if you were to create a graph for it, you would see super slow progress at first, but end the year 37 times better than you were when you started. Here’s a blog post where Clear also explains it.
Would I like to be 37 times better at running my business and helping as many people as possible in this here world to love themselves more, doubt themselves less, and stop letting their negative self-talk jerk them around? HELL YEAH I WOULD.
So here’s me, committing to small, brave steps each day.
Here’s me, saying HELL YEAH to more self-love, self-kindness, and confidence and NO MA’AM to self-doubt, negative self-talk, and tolerating bullshit.
How about you? Do you have a word or mantra for 2022? If so, I’d love for you to drop it in the comments so I can send you a HELL YEAH!
And if you have made resolutions for yourself or are choosing a new habit or new theme for the year, and feel as if you’d like some support and coaching with that, check out my accountability coaching package. It gives you four calls (one at the start, plus one each month for three months) along with weekly email support and other encouragement.
