Your start of the week check-in.
No wonder we are not achieving the goals we set for ourselves. Living life like this can leave us feeling unfulfilled and it can have an impact on our mental wellness. But with a little focus, we can set ourselves up for success.
Help yourself in 5 minutes each morning
With just a little effort and no more than five minutes effort a day we can improve our chances of having a good week.
Why not try doing something different this week? It might help to write down your answers to the following six points. You can then refer to them in a quick 5-minute check-in with yourself each morning.
1. My #1 priority this week is…
Work our what you’d like to achieve this coming week and what you need to prioritise to make it happen. It might be spending more time with your children. It could even be finding the time to look into that course that you want to take but have never had the time for.
2. I want to do less…
Ask yourself what you’ll need to do less of to help you achieve your priority for the week. Often it’s the simple things that make all the difference. It could be something that you think wastes your time, or something that distracts you.
3. I want to do more…
Next, ask yourself what you need to do more of. It might be as simple as planning your day better so that you can leave the office on time to spend more time with your kids.
4. This week I want to feel…
Planning is great, better still to envisage how you want to feel. It’ll also help you check in with yourself during the week to check that you are going in the right direction.
5. To feel this way, I will…
Setting expectations for how we want to be feeling can help us identify when we need to make little tweaks. It’s also important to know what we are going to do to give us the best chance of feeling the way we want to. Sometimes, it just needs us to spend more time on ourselves and prioritise self-love and self-care.
6. If I get stuck I’ll remember…
Check-in with yourself daily and see how you are doing. You might want to look at the notes you made when you first thought about these six points. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you aren’t making the progress you wanted. It is normal and some weeks will be better than others. Likely, you won’t need to make a huge change. Small tweaks to what you are doing often produce the biggest results.
If you manage to repeat this process over a number of weeks, you’ll probably be surprised at how much better you feel and how much you’ve achieved. Some weeks will be better than others, but keep on going and you’ll reach your goals.
Sometimes we all need a little extra help
It can sometimes be difficult to get into the habit of planning for our weeks, setting goals and taking the steps to achieve them. Its normal to need an extra helping hand and not something we should feel embarrased about. It’s at times like these that getting help from a professional can help.
Maria Luedeke at Aspire Counselling, Singapore is a qualified Counsellor who works with people wanting to improve their mental health. Maria can work with couples face to face or using secure video counselling.
Thank you to Amber Rae for the illustration and 6 steps for the Start Of The Week Check-in. Find out more about Amber and follow her by clicking this link.
