New Year Resolutions

January is now more than half way through, and for many of us all those resolutions we made a few short weeks ago are probably crumbling, if not a fading memory.

Why do we fail when it comes to making changes in our lives? Put simply change is hard. We are struggling against familiar patterns and habits. Those patterns and habits have physical,mental and emotional components.

Often it is the emotional patterns that are the hardest to change, because they are the instinctual, non rational part of us. As Alan Cohen says,

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

So, how will you make an adventure of this year and what are the changes you wish to create?

How will you stick to what it is you want to bring into being, and avoid the pull back of the status quo?

A similar tension is at the heart of Person Centred Planning work; for example in the use of the planning tool PATH.

Time and effort must be put into making clear the dream and vision. This involves helping the individual, group, organisation be clear about their passions, what drives them, what the "perfect world" would be where all the things that make life meaningful and make living worthwhile are present.

At the same time, it is vitally important to hold that energy and ground it reality by making a the goal for a year or so in the future. We visualise what we have achieved what is possible and positive, how life has changed. We set the arrows of our passions on a target at the limits of our reach, but still within in view.

The remaining steps of PATH help us to flesh out who and what will help us break those small steps down into manageable change.

This combination is very powerful and much gratitude is due to the creators of the tool (Pearpoint,Forrest and O'Brien)


By doing this, we are truly creating that change for ourselves.


Rose Marshall Consultancy is a new training consultancy dedicated to helping individuals and organisations create positive and meaningful change at a human pace. Rose has 20 years experience working to do this in a wide range of social care and community settings, and has helped bring about real and lasting change. Sign up today to receive regular updates.