Beginning the New Year with Purpose and Intention
By Mary Pat Mueller
President-Elect of SDCA
As I sit down to write this article we are ushering in 2007 and reflecting back on 2006. We greet each other with "Happy New Year" and engage in celebrations to commemorate the passage of the old and beginning of the new. Many of us commit to "new years resolutions," in an effort to begin anew. All this celebration and thinking of the new year has gotten me to thinking about some concepts I learned from Chris Argyris in his book, Flawed Advice and the Management Trap."
We have all experienced beginning the new year with the resolution to lose weight, stop smoking, begin exercising or some other worthwhile goal that benefit's us in some way. Sometimes we reach those goals and sometimes we do not. As counselors we often see people who say one thing but do another. For most people this is not their intention. Far from being intentional, these gaps often surface because we are victims of limited awareness and have become subject to our blind spots.
Chris Argyris, along with his counterpart Donald Shon, have coined two terms to help us better understand these gaps.
Espoused Theory – What an individual says they believe and
Theory in Use - Their actual observed behavior
Discrepancies between the two often go unnoticed and are invisible to people.
So, as you begin this New Year what are the blind spots that keep you from surfacing and identifying discrepancies that hold you back? How could becoming more aware help you attain greater awareness, purpose, competence and well-being? And imagine how that could change your life, those you touch, and countless others.
So in closing, here's wishing you a happy, prosperous new year. May the year ahead be filled with purpose and accomplishment. May you be connected with the joy in your heart.