Scott Burrows

Scott Burrows, Grit, Change and Resilience Speaker

What Were Your 2021 Resolutions, Anyway?

 

After my last keynote speech on Grit, Change and Resilience, I asked the participants a simple, yet revealing question: “What were your 2021 resolutions?” The question was met with lots of nervous laughter. The typical answer was “to forget about 2020.”

But that’s not a resolution

Everyone, including me, was inconvenienced (or much worse) by the virus that swept the world. And, I will agree, 2020 was a dismal year. Though 2021 was much better, it is interesting when I ask many audience members about 2022, I most often hear, “to forget about 2021.” It is a troubling pattern.

Instead of adapting to change, far too many of us are letting the change define us. Instead of being resilient, some of us have become stuck in the mud; instead of being determined to have the positive vision overcome the bad, I all too often see pessimism and gloom.

For 2022, the greatest gift we can give ourselves, our families and our companies is having faith in the future. We are getting through this, we have learned how to adapt to our situations, we will overcome the challenges in front of us. However, it will take some work to not only change ourselves, but many of those around us.

Before I continue, let’s not forget that our nation has overcome a Civil War, world wars, a Great Depression and multiple recessions, political upheavals, stock market crashes, and a pandemic in 1918. Out of each one of those catastrophes, great new inventions, industries, and organizations were launched.

There is nothing we cannot overcome in 2022 if we have faith in the future. However, it will take a plan and purpose.

We must resolve to overcome our situations and not give into them. To be successful in 2022, we must be driven to meet change by having the mindset to overcome whatever is in our way. It will call for resilience to transform our thinking from “I can’t” to “I can.” There must be a clear-cut vision in all of this, which is why I love people who say:

“Scott, these are my resolutions and I am going to stick to them.”

If we have concrete goals, and we hold ourselves to those goals, we achieve great outcomes. A resolution is a goal, isn’t it? If we resolve to start a new business, to learn a new language or work toward getting a promotion, what are the specific steps we must take to realize those goals?

Having specific goals toward a resolution shows purpose and ambition and not giving into defeat.

Finally, whether you want to call it grit or determination, resolutions require a daily, weekly, monthly work. As a keynote speaker on Grit, Change and Resilience, I have learned that the difference between successful people and most everyone else, has little to do with luck, wealth or status, and everything to do with grit.

Wishing you a wonderful New Year with real goals and positive outcomes.

 

To contact Scott Burrows, Grit, Change and Resilience keynote speaker for a virtual or in person presentation, please reach out to him through this new website or his office at: (520) 548-1169

 

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