Chinese New Year: Opportunity to Start Over, If You Need It

Happy new year! What I love about Chinese New Year – aside from the bright red pictures of cute animals and the fun implications for one’s horoscope – is that it is a chance to start over. Some years, for one reason or another, you just don’t get started with all of your goals and plans as soon as you intended.  Then, magically, Chinese New Year appears and provides a lovely opportunity for a “do-over.” After all, 1.4 billion people and a great civilization must know a thing or two. 

2020 is the year of the rat and ChineseZodiac.org says it’s going to be a prosperous year and that “everyone will show determination regarding their goals and aspirations.” This is also a particularly good year for founding and evolving. However, the zodiac warns that new initiatives will only be successful if they are carefully planned. As a coach, this warms the cockles of my heart, whatever those are.

Sometimes people have an aversion to planning, which is understandable, since goals and projects almost never go exactly as intended, and that can be frustrating. So, here are three quick reminders regarding planning.  These apply equally well for job hunting, business development, a new exercise plan, really any endeavor.

#1 Write it down – A lot of people keep their plans in their heads, but every lawyer knows that writing imposes a discipline that helps you refine and improve your arguments.  It’s similar for the planning process. You get a better plan because of the rigor that writing imposes.

#2 Track progress – It usually takes a lot of little actions to lead to big wins.  Say you planned to have four networking lunches per month, but you didn’t actually do any in January. However, you did schedule three for February. You should give yourself some credit for the actions you did take. And having some place where you actually write down your wins helps you to stay motivated.  

#3 Revise Regularly – It is also really important that when you get too far off track with your plan, you just revise it and recommit. As the year goes on, people may find that their actions diverge further and further from the plan. They think, “I should get back to that,” but over time the gap widens and it can feel insurmountable. As simplistic as it may sound, just looking at your plan, updating it with revised dates and reasonable action steps makes the plan feel more doable, which in turn makes you more likely to actually get started or persevere when the going gets tough. 

For anyone who is currently not feeling enthusiastic about the year of the rat, don’t worry. You have company. Just think of all those grumpy cats out there!

And for those of you who celebrate Chinese New Year for cultural or family reasons, I hope you had a wonderful holiday!