April 2024: Emotional Habits

Hello, April! 

As I close out the first quarter, I reflect upon the past three months with three key markers...

Wellbeing: Is the pace and tone I have set what I want for the rest of the year?

Purpose: Are the clients I work with the right match for both them and me?

Connection: Have I made intentional efforts to foster the most important relationships in my life?

I find this time - the first quarter into the year - is perhaps more important for reflection and intention setting, compared to the initial New Year buzz. Here’s why: By now, New Year’s resolutions and goals feel like a distant memory. The rubber meets the road when you take a look back at how you have spent your days following so much momentum. Wellbeing, purpose, and connection are three guiding check-points for me to determine what needs to be altered, ensuring I contribute meaningfully to my overall long term fulfillment.

I believe our daily habits determine the quality of our lives. I work with a lot of organizations who want to focus on relationship-building, in an effort to create a more authentic work culture. Here’s the catch...like anything that’s worth having, it’s not an overnight process. Being physically fit does not happen by having one personal training session; it comes from a daily commitment to movement and mindfulness about what we put into our bodies.

Creating emotional connection with your children does not happen by simply going on a family vacation - it comes from the daily rituals you have created in the name of unconditionally loving, supporting, and understanding them.

So similarly, if trust needs to be developed in the workplace or at home, there are a hundred ways that can unfold on a day-to-day basis. It comes from daily check-ins, to simply ask how someone is doing. It comes with moments of vulnerability, when we share what's going on in our world. It comes from including someone in a decision-making process. It comes from owning our mistakes and repairing after a conflict.

Today, I am applying what I share with these organizations - I am taking an honest inventory of my emotional habits and asking myself, where am I getting in my own way? Where can I shift things in the name of making life less complicated? Where can I make efforts to build relationships with integrity? I will simply start with today.

Wishing you an intentional month ahead,

 Lucy