Happy New Year all! I hope you are all feeling well rested after your Christmas break and ready for the start of a new year that will hopefully be much less challenging than the last. That being said we are starting 2021 in another national lockdown with this in mind and the announcement of changes to our current working practices, I would like to remind you about the services we have in place to support you:
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Mental Health First Aiders
- Learning and Development courses
- Mental health resources
If you have any concerns, please speak to your line manager who can escalate if needed. As Mark mentioned earlier today, this lockdown might feel harder and more challenging than last year and we want to support your health and wellbeing as much as we can at this time. Therefore if you do have any thoughts and ideas on anything additional we can do, I would encourage you to email coronavirus@growthco.uk.
New Year is usually a time of celebration but is also the chance to make a fresh start. Many people choose this time of year to reflect upon their achievements of the previous twelve months and make resolutions for the coming year, setting goals and defining the changes they would like to see within themselves.
The practice of setting resolutions was first recorded by the Babylonians over four thousand years ago, who believed that whatever a person did on the first day of the year had significant effects on their lives all year long. Despite these good intentions, it is well known that New Year’s resolutions do not have much of a success rate. With that in mind, here are some tips for successfully keeping any resolutions you may have:
- Pick a change you actually want to make. By choosing a resolution that you already have an interest in you are more likely to stick to it.
- Set small but realistic goals. By breaking down a large objective into smaller, more manageable goals, you are more likely to feel that you are succeeding in your resolution.
- Plan exactly how you will accomplish your goal. Rather than just considering the outcome you wish to achieve; think of the specific changes you will need to make to meet your target. If your intention is to improve your physical health, plan how you might amend your diet or routine to support this.
- Think of coping strategies. You will inevitably have your resolution tested at some stage so have a plan in place to help you deal with temptation. You may find it helpful to replace a negative habit with a more positive one. If your resolution involves spending less time on social media, you may find it useful to go for a walk when you feel the temptation to scroll.
Whilst reflecting on the positive changes we can make to our own lives; it seems a good time to consider what we might also be able to contribute to others through volunteering. Volunteer2day, our GC Volunteering policy, provides all employees with the opportunity to take paid time off of up to two days per year to undertake community or charitable activities that align with GC’s Corporate Values. These two days can be taken in hours, half days and full days and if your volunteering is done outside of the working day, you can claim this time back in lieu. Volunteering not only provides charitable organisations with valuable resources, but has also been shown to correspond with a reduction in blood pressure which in turn reduces the risk of strokes and heart attacks, along with an increase in the psychological wellbeing of volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering, please speak to your manager and complete the Volunteering Request From.
If you need some inspiration, look no further than the winner of GC’s ‘Most Giving Colleague Award’, Arshad Dababhoy. Arshad (who is president of charity Preston Muslim Cultural Centre) and his team, made use of GC’s two days volunteering leave to complete a holiday hunger project. This involved organising and delivering 220 food parcels to families with children attending St Stephens School in Preston. Arshad has received lots of positive feedback from parents at the school who have very gratefully received the food parcels, a story which has been picked up by Lancashire Evening Post.
You can also read about colleagues who are making the most of volunteering opportunities in the your stories section on the staff hub, examples include Yousef Taktak, Claire Nixon and Giulia Molteni’s volunteering experiences which I’m sure you’ll find inspiring.
Although new year is a great time for fresh starts, making a change and doing something new, some people feel little overwhelmed by the pressure to do just that. This is a personal choice, you don’t have to change anything if you don’t want to. You may already have been doing something to help yourself since the first lockdown or the second lockdown or not at all and that’s okay too. The Mental Health Foundation have created a simple template to help you to think about what you can do to look after your mental health as part of your self-development; so that you can focus on things that work for you irrespective of what others are doing.
Stay safe and well.