It has been said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results might be a definition of madness. Perhaps this is the year that you feel that you would like to do something different, perhaps this is the year in which you would like to take more control of your life.
It is not uncommon for people to take stock at this time of year and perhaps decide that they want to tackle their relationship issues or that they want to get their anxiety under control this year. Yet beyond knowing that we have relationship issues or an anxiety problem we are not very sure what the next step might be. The simplest and the safest step is to continue to do what we did before. It was once described as being on autopilot, while we might not be happy at least we know what to expect.
So what could you do? Imagine you were to tackle your anxiety what would it be like to do one thing different. Perhaps that might be talk to someone new or to phone someone and see how that felt. Try to see beyond the panic, the negative feelings that make up the anxiety try to feel the positive that comes from tackling the problem from breaking out of old patterns.
What could you do about your relationship issues? The obvious thing is to talk about them, or to write your partner a letter or to go on a date or to change one thing and see if it changes the relationship issues. Perhaps relationship issues are more complex since you have to consider how it affects you both but the principle of doing one thing different still holds how does it change it for you?
Of course one event cannot change a life so consistency is the name of the game you need to keep tackling the anxiety and keep noticing the changes and adjusting what you do. Keep addressing the relationship issues and keep talking keep making a difference. Keep doing something different so that you are not driven mad so that you are changing your life towards the better life that you seek.