Why Feb matters for your neuroplasticity

EXPECTATIONS AROUND LEARNING NEW SKILLS, COMPETENCIES, DEVELOPING NEW HABITS IS WHAT MAKES THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR TOUGH

- Sonali Gupta

January was filled with so many clients, friends and family mentioning how it felt like the longest month of the year. The internet too was full of memes about this. Thankfully February is here and somehow it feels a little lighter already. I think it has to do with how we perceive January and put it on a pedestal. Our expectations around learning new skills, competencies, developing new habits is what makes the beginning of the year tough for some of us.

Of course, it helps to know that February is a shorter month and our lens of how we look at our new year resolutions also shifts by this time. So very often in February, I ask clients about what skills they want to develop and in turn develop a realistic plan that helps to slowly work towards it. Human beings are bad at predicting outcomes and as a result, sometimes we underestimate how much time, practice and effort developing a new skill or habit takes. This partially contributes to our sense of disappointment, frustration and then eventually giving up goals mid-way.