Pause, Reflect, and Embrace the Fresh Start Effect

Every new beginning comes from another beginning’s end.

That line isn’t a lyric from our fave club closer; it’s a quote from the most ‘flamboyant’ and ‘controversial’ father of stoicism. Credited with inspiring the origins of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Seneca probably deserves kudos from Powrsuit too. 

Stoacists effectively believe in self-leadership: dealing with the world as it is, controlling the controllable, and in the powr of connection. Yes, the roots of Powrsuit can be traced back to 4BC – when an emperor could make a philosopher the richest man in the empire before ordering him to commit suicide. Wild.

But we digress. 

Ancient Stoacists also identified a great truism: Every new beginning (even arbitrary ones like day, week, year, decade, etc) requires a previous beginning to end. And, if we want to maximise that new beginning, we need to reflect on the current ending first.

New year, new me 

Every new year triggers the fresh start effect. Actually, any new time period does. By breaking time into defined blocks, we create regular opportunities to let go of the past and start anew. A fresh start (even an arbitrary one) boosts our motivation to make positive change.

Often, that change is short-lived. Why? Because we can’t leave past mistakes behind (and know what we want to take forward) if we don’t take the time to reflect on what those things actually are.

Instead of drawing a line in the sand at the end of each year (or week, or month), we should take a leaf out of Kristen’s dog’s book and dig it up. Unearth all the wins, fails, lessons and mistakes that defined the previous period before we set about shaping the next one. 

Reflection made easy

Got 10 minutes? Of course, you do; you’re reading this article. 

We’ve curated five simple questions to ask yourself right now. We’ve even created a simple form to remove any barriers to taking action. Set a timer for 2 minutes per question and reflect, and you’ll get emailed a copy of your answers to keep on hand.

Don’t worry about typos, trains of thought or half-formed answers; jot down the first thing that comes into your head. This will spark your subconscious, which will deliver more reflections over the coming days:

What 3 words best summarise my week/month/year?

What’s the biggest lesson I learned?

What am I leaving behind?

What am I taking forward?

Who do I want to thank? (Send them a quick message!)