Week 29: Reset
About Wordscape:
For many, August is one of the slower months of the year. Maybe you’re going on holiday, or just taking time off. Chances are you have colleagues that are – which might make your August a little more hectic. Here, we’re in planning for an upcoming issue of Ethos and have three big projects to finish this month, so we’re making the most of other people being around less.
It’s also the time of year that, inevitably, thoughts turn to new school terms, autumn and the run-in to Christmas. It’s a time for reflection and that’s what we’re doing for this month’s takeover of the Year of Action Campaign – resetting and reflecting.
We’re taking it in turns as a team and so you’ll be hearing from me (Andrew), Fiona, Eve and Em in turn across the month.
Week 29: Reset
I’m going to suggest something a bit counter intuitive for a Year of Action campaign action and ask you this week to not really take an action at all. This week it’s about hitting pause. Stop what you’re doing.
Pausing is something I’ve been thinking a lot about of late. Here’s why…
When we started this campaign we focused very much on helping people to get momentum, knowing that routines, habits and momentum are important when trying to change things or make something happen. A series of repeated actions, over and over, building up and growing. It really works.
But when the actions you take do become a habit, something you do just because it’s what you do, how do you know if it’s still serving you, or serving your community and the planet in the case of this campaign, as your priorities change and the world changes and needs change with them?
Well you start by stopping…
Take action
What I’m going to do, and invite you to do too, is to cease all non-essential actions for a week. To take a bit of paper out and look at the things that have formed part of your routine, revisit the goals you’ve set and see if the actions you take are helping you get towards or further away from that goal.
Maybe also ask:
Have your goals changed since you first set them?
Has the urgency changed?
How do you need to adjust the things you do to help you get there?
If it helps, you have seven months of suggested actions from our Year of Action partners that might help guide what you do next. Or, it might turn out that you’re on the right path and your actions you’re taking really are the things you need to be doing. In that case, get going, but maybe wait till next week…
