This year Chinese New Year starts on Friday, 12th February; also known as “Spring Festival” in modern China, this is the most important traditional festival, celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. There is a tradition not to pick up a broom, in case you sweep the good luck for the New Year out of the door!
Apart from providing an opportunity to celebrate with fireworks and a feast of Chinese food, it gives you a second chance at your New Year resolutions! Failed to give up smoking, failed to use your gym membership, give it another try on Saturday.
This year will be the year of the Ox, People born in the Year of the Ox are strong, reliable, fair and conscientious, inspiring confidence in others. They are also calm, patient, methodical and can be trusted. Although they say little they can be very opinionated. They believe strongly in themselves, but are also stubborn and hate to fail or be challenged.
The best news is that it is a whole two weeks of celebration.
Resolving to do better
At 10Eighty we believe that setting goals is useful in personal and professional development. The most common reason we fail to keep New Years’ resolutions is that we set unrealistic goals. Surveys suggest that 32% of respondents say that their resolutions are usually broken by the end of January, while only 10% said they never break one.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, if you failed to complete dry January or Veganuary or whatever else, just start over. Make February the month when you reset your goals, don’t be downhearted if you slip up, remember to celebrate your successes. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
Steven Covey in “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” studied executives and found that the most successful wrote down their goals and reviewed them periodically.
Tips for sticking to your resolutions:
- Don’t keep your resolution a secret. Tell friends and family members who will be there to support your resolve to change yourself for the better or improve your health. Find someone who shares your resolution and motivate each other.
- Keep track of each small success; short-term goals are easier to keep, and each small achievement will help keep you motivated.
- Stick with it – experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity to become a habit and six months for it to become part of your personality. Be persistent and patient!
A useful trick, that we sometimes use at our events, is send yourself a postcard. Write your three key resolutions down and post the card to yourself. Pin it somewhere that will catch the eye, as a reminder of what’s important in 2021.
Gong Hey Fat Choy, buy in some Chinese beer, cook a stir fry and share some fortune cookies around, there’s a whole near year ahead.
