Monday Mindfulness Minute: "Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I'm wise, so I'm changing myself."

With the New Year comes a renewed focus on self-growth. Whether we hope to make a more consistent effort at the gym, reduce frivolous spending to achieve our saving goal, or make a concerted effort to put our family first, we know our success will hinge on consistency.

But what fuels consistency? And why does the fuel needed to maintain our resolution seem to run out after only a few weeks?

One of the biggest hidden inhibitors to achieving our goals to start the year, and throughout, is that we absent-mindedly expend our energy trying to control those around us (the "changing the world" part in Rumi's quote above). As Mel Robbinson relays in her new book The Let Them Theory, "Instead of wasting my energy on something I can't control - what others say, think, and do - I poured my energy into what I can control: me. The result? I gained more control over my own life than I ever had before."

Letting them ranges from the small things like letting them not do the dishes or letting them cut you off in traffic, to bigger things like letting your friends not invite you to go out with them or letting your best friend leave you on read via text. As should be apparent, we can't stop them in the first place, so we save our energy by our response being one of acceptance. This doesn't mean we don't respond to them directly eventually, but when/if we need to, we do so in a mindful way where we aren't giving all of our energy.

As we return to the office and to our general flow of life following the Holiday Break, let us let them more—they are going to do what they want to do anyway—and save our breath and energy to invest in our fuel tank to achieve the goals we have set.