It is often thought that there are two types of people, those who stick to New Year’s resolutions and those who do not.

I fall somewhere in the middle. I see a resolution as just the beginning, a step on a path with inevitable twists and turns.  A resolution is sure to lead you to something even it that something is very different from what you originally planned.

It was with that mindset that I approached the New Year.  I had already signed up for a full schedule of January courses.  ‘Appreciative Living’, ‘Avoiding Procrastination’ and the highly anticipated ‘Build your Assertiveness Toolbox’.  A mixed bag, true, but this was my commitment to a ‘Bang, Boom, Kerching’ start to the New Year!

It was amongst this high anticipation that a very strange thing happened.  Before I had even pressed that ‘join’ button on my virtual training I noticed that I had started acting the way that I predicted the course would instruct me to. This strange phenomenon reminded me of Gretchen Rubin’s words: ‘act the way I want to feel’.  Agreed Gretchen, but this felt like so much more.

After discussing this with my community of Striped Sisters, (my default for absolutely everything), we tried to come up with a name. And so ‘Assuming the Mantle-ism’ was born.  It is the idea that by putting on the cloak, (in this case signing up for the courses), that you have already assumed the role and with that, all its accompanying responsibilities.

The clearest example of this has been (you’ve guessed it) the Assertiveness Course. One session in and I already feel I am on the road to becoming a kick-ass communicator.  Was this a resolution brought about by a New Year, or a mindset shift that was years in the making?  Whatever this is, my cloak of visibility is now on. Let the teaching begin.

 

© stripedsisters 2022

Thanks to Paz Arando on Unsplash for the image.


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