It has been about 10 days since the new year began. How are you doing on your resolutions? If you have not made any, here is a list of 50 resolutions to choose from.In 2016 I made resolutions that would help me improve my storytelling skills. Innovations that get implemented and go viral are the ones that have stories that capture our imagination. Ideas travel faster when they ride on the wings of stories. Here’s what I resolved to do:
- a) Take notes when innovators and entrepreneurs tell their stories
- b) Improve my visual storytelling skills by drawing something every day
- c) Listen to podcasts of storytellers & screen writers
The result was that I managed to churn out The Digital Tsunami that had a heavy dose of visual storytelling. The resolutions really did help keep me on track.I have been looking for inspiration for my resolutions. And I found some ideas with Arianna Huffington’s Twitter updates as she launched Thrive Global in India.
“85% of India’s working professionals say they are stressed”
How can we take steps to thrive? Here are some of her ideas that resonated with me:
- Sleep is underrated: We make better decisions when we are well rested. We don’t snap at others (and thus improve our relationships). Yet we do not make the effort to get enough deep sleep.
- 85% of India’s working professionals say they are stressed: Stress impacts employee productivity & attrition. It may be counter-intuitive but letting the employees – especially senior leaders the ability to disconnect their devices may help improve their mindfulness at work. 25 million Indians are “addicted” to the internet.
- Stay fully charged: When your phone battery shows limited charge do you rush to find a charging point? A terrific phone with no charge is useless. We need to do the same for ourselves. Getting having deep relationships at work and finding meaning at work in which we thrive and stay fully charged.
- Set aside time for digital detox periodically: When electricity was invented, people were so enamoured by it that they used to sleep with the lights on. Then they realized that they slept better when they shut off the lights. It is time to do the same with our phones. Switching off the devices for short spells (say, during meal times) can help us focus on conversations that we are barely hearing, leave alone listening deeply to.
Set time aside for a digital detox
Micro-steps will help you thriveTake “micro-steps”. Do what you can commit to doing every day with little or no effort. That may be the secret to keeping your resolutions. Instead of resolving to exercising for an hour every day, try committing to doing five push-ups every day or maybe even two. This may seem ridiculous at first. This is a great way to forming new habits.Instead of giving up sugar altogether from tomorrow, try drinking one cup of tea without sugar. You get the drift. Committing to a micro-step of drinking one glass of water every morning is a great micro-step if you wish to increase the amount of water you drink every day.May you and your loved ones thrive every day.——–Join 600,000 readers on LinkedIn and follow my short posts and ideas.First published by Times of India & Eco Times <click here>