|
Success!Ezine
Volume 7 Issue 1 -- January 2010
DrCarolWebster.com
Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved
Success!Ezine
is a Free newsletter provided to you by
Dr. E. Carol Webster to help you get ahead in life
and enjoy your success.
Send e-mail address to
Subscribe if this is the first edition
you've received and you'd like to receive future issues. Your address will
not be shared.
Send e-mail address to
Unsubscribe
if you'd like to be removed from the mailing list. |
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist
consultant in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Feel free to call or
e-mail for more information.
Dr. Webster is author of
Success Management: How to Get to the Top and Keep
Your Sanity Once You Get There and The
Fear of Success: Stop It From Stopping You! |
Feature Article
Set a New Direction for the New Year
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2010
Each
New Year stirs excitement and hopes for great success in the months
ahead. Even if you’ve been suffering because of the recession and have
been feeling down, you probably can admit feeling some hope that things
will be better for you this year. But sometimes this requires setting a
new direction in order to obtain better outcomes, so don’t be afraid to
chart a new course if your old plan isn’t getting you anywhere.
 |
Learn from the Past |
Evaluate past plans and strategies to determine what worked well for you
versus what you need to change. Don’t keep doing the same things if you
aren’t getting results. It’s a pretty good bet that you won’t get any
better results this year if you don’t do something different.
|
Set a New Direction for the Future |
Take what you learned from the past and chart a new course for the
future. Sometimes a new direction is necessary, even if it’s unfamiliar
and pushes out of your comfort zone. Whether in your career or personal
life, it’s important to see results, so don’t hold onto failed
strategies. Figure out what you can do differently, learn from others
who are thriving, and enjoy the excitement of seeing your new plans
unfold.
|
Boost Your Resiliency |
Whether you’re still trying to get back on your feet or are enjoying the
soaring time of your life, it’s important to remain hardy and resilient.
Life has a way of whipping you around and even good stress is, well –
stressful. So resolve to take better care of yourself this New Year
so that you are well fortified to withstand what’s ahead. Learn to
change your thinking so that you view the bumps and scrapes of life as
surmountable challenges and remind yourself that you have the grit to
successfully overcome them. Even extreme stressors must be viewed as
“things that can happen in life” that can be successfully weathered too
in spite of their gravity. Reject self-doubt and pessimistic thinking
that tries to intrude and rekindle belief in your ability to identify
new possibilities when the old ones fail. While there’s no guarantee
that all will turn out in your favor, you can bet that dwelling in the
valley of negativity and gloom will limit your achievements, if not hold
you back altogether.
The New Year is a time for looking forward and expecting the best --
even if last year was a bummer. Discard old strategies that haven’t been
working and set your sights on new plans that hold promise and stir some
excitement within you. Growing emotionally means learning from the past
and having the wisdom to understand that a new direction may take you
better places in the future.
About the Author:
Dr. E. Carol Webster is a clinical psychologist consultant in Fort Lauderdale, FL and is author of
Success Management: How to
Get to the Top and Keep Your Sanity Once You Get There
and The Fear of Success: Stop
It From Stopping You!
|
|
Ask Dr. Webster...
Dear Dr. Webster:
Another year is gone and I didn’t keep any of my new year’s resolutions. I
always start out with the best intentions but don’t really think much about
them after a few days. I want to do better this year, so what can I do?
-- Not Proud of Not Changing
Dear Not Proud of Not Changing: Some people make New Year’s
resolutions because it’s fun to think about all the things they could change
to make themselves and their lives better. But they’re not particularly sick
of themselves, so they don’t really have a lot of motivation to change.
Sounds like this might be you. New Year’s Resolutions require the resolve
to change – that inner determination to make things different because you’re
fed up with them as they are. If your inner voice is only saying “it would
be nice if…,” you’re not likely to muster the energy and perseverance
necessary to make the changes. Your daily thoughts must ring loud and clear:
“I’ve got to do this!” and your behavior must show that you’re
serious about it.
Baby steps are okay. Some action is always better than no
action and can bring you closer to your goal if you chip away at changing
the bad habit or other behavior little by little. And if you haven’t gotten
anywhere on your own after all these years, try a different approach. Enlist
your mate or a friend to nag you so that you feel a little pressure to stick
with your resolution. Sometimes we do better with things if we know we’re
going to be held accountable. And it’s even better if your mate is working
on the same behavior and you can keep each other on track. Some people take
it a step further and make a competition out of it because they do best when
they’re driven to “win”, but that’s not for everyone. The main thing is not
to let the resolution get out of your focus because “out of sight, out of
mind” means you’ll do nothing and will be disappointed that you have no
self-improvement to feel proud of this time next year.
--Dr. Webster
Got a Question?
Ask Dr. Webster
|
Success Motivator
A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the new horizon, the great hope.
-- Howard Thurman
Success Tip
Five Frequently Used
Perspectives
-
Common Place Perspective. Perhaps you have been
thinking that you are the only one to have collided with the stressful
circumstance at hand. Feeling alone while being undermined by a problem
makes it harder to tolerate. It is especially easy, then, to sink into
self-pity and bitterness. “Why me?” In contrast, you adopt the
commonplace perspective when you recognize that others have experienced
this type of stressful circumstance, now or in the past…
-
Manageability Perspective. …In this perspective,
you take the standpoint that the stressful circumstance always could be
worse. This perspective makes the situation tolerable so you can
approach it long enough to solve it.
-
Improvability Perspective. For this perspective,
the stressful circumstance becomes more tolerable because you find a
standpoint from which it can improve. You imagine ways to improve the
circumstance rather than to just have passive optimism that does little
to change it…
-
Time Perspective. ...Even if things are awful
right now, that pain becomes more manageable and less disruptive if you
can anticipate a time when all will be better...If you can think of how
things will calm down once the deadline has passed, it may help you to
tolerate the pain and give the necessary effort to be successful.
-
Unpredictability Perspective. ...despite your
efforts to think through how to solve the problem, you recognize that
you cannot resolve some of its aspects. You can do what you can to solve
the problem, but the precise outcome is still somewhat
unpredictable…What happens from that point on is out of your hands.
From the book:
Resilience at Work:
How to Succeed No Matter What Life Throws At You
by Salvatore Maddi & Deborah
Khoshaba
MJF Books, New York, 2005
|
|
If you enjoyed this newsletter, forward a copy to
friends so they can subscribe!
Thank You
-------------
Your input is important.
Share your
Feedback
and suggest topics you'd like to read about in future issues. |
|
Missed
An Issue?
Here's another chance to read up on topics of interest: |
|
ISSUE |
FEATURE
ARTICLE |
|
December 2009 |
Shrink Spending
This Holiday Season |
|
November 2009 |
Praise Propels Performance |
|
October 2009 |
Inflated Egos Ignore Ethics |
|
September 2009 |
Incivility in the Workplace |
|
August 2009 |
Enhance Your Image |
|
July 2009 |
Value Vacation |
|
June 2009 |
Helplessness Hinders Success |
|
May 2009 |
Post Downsizing Stress Syndrome |
|
April 2009 |
Don't Be Foolish in Fallen
Economy |
|
March 2009 |
Hang Tough In Tough Times |
|
February 2009 |
Talk Straight During Uncertain
Times |
|
January 2009 |
Career Contentment |
|
2008 Issues |
|
2007 Issues |
|
2006 Issues |
|
2005 Issues |
|
2004 Issues |
|
2003 Issues |
|
Success!Ezine
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology Consulting
DrCarolWebster.com
954.797.9766
Ezine@DrCarolWebster.com
Disclaimer: The information in this
newsletter is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a
substitute for obtaining direct professional help. |
