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  Today in Health it using the emerging end of the pandemic to make a new start, my name is Bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and creator of this week in Health IT at channel dedicated to keeping Health IT staff. Current and engaged Health Lyrics is my company. I provide executive coaching for health leaders around technology and it.

If you wanna learn more, check out health lyrics.com. Alright, here's today's story. Judy Kirby, an executive recruiter in healthcare friend and former guest of this week in Health. It shared this New York Times story on social media, and the story is Need a pandemic Reset, try this 10 day challenge. And on Fridays I stray a little from the day-to-Day Health.

It stories and share things that catch my attention. And this story did. So let me share with you some excerpts. A study show that moments of disruption offer unique opportunity to set. And achieve new goals. If there was ever a perfect time to make a life change, this is it. Behavioral scientists have long known that times of disruption and transition also create new opportunities for growth.

I. Change. Disruption can come in many forms and it happens when life knocks us out of our normal routines. It can be moving to a new city, starting a new job, getting married or divorced, having a child, and for many of us, there's never been a bigger life disruption than the pandemic, which changed how we work, eat, sleep, and exercise, and even how we connect with friends and family.

A lot of this article's based on a book that. Katie Milkman, a professor at Wharton School wrote, and the title of that book is How to Change the Science of Getting From Where You Are to Where you want to Be. Dr. Milkman and her colleagues have found that we're most inclined to make meaningful change around temporal landmarks.

These points in time that we naturally associate with New Beginnings. New Year's Day is the most obvious temporal landmark in our lives, but birthdays, the start of spring, the start of a new school year, even the beginning of a week. Or the first of the month are temporal landmarks that create psychological opportunities for change.

In one study, Dr. Milkman found that students were most likely to visit the gym around the start of the week, the first of the month, following birthdays or afterschool breaks. Another study found that when people were advised to start saving money in a few months, they were less likely to do so than a group of people told to start saving money around their birthday.

The birthday group saved 20 to 30% more money. Although the pandemic is far from over, for many people, the lifting of restrictions and getting vaccinated means planning vacations and returning to more normal work and school routines is exactly the kind of psychological new beginning that could prompt the fresh start effect, said Dr.

Milkman, and that's what she's gonna talk about. She's gonna talk about these routines or. As we call 'em habits, and that's what the reset is really about. As the pandemic recedes, some people are worried that the past year's lockdowns restrictions and time at home was a missed opportunity, and some people have communicated that to me.

Some people feel like they just muddled through the year and they didn't feel like they used the time in a meaningful way. And the article goes on. While some people did develop healthy new habits during the pandemic lockdowns, it's not too late if you spent your pandemic days just getting by. The good news is that the end of the pandemic is probably a more opportune time for meaningful change than when you were experiencing the heightened anxiety of lockdowns.

So what's your next chapter? It goes on. One of the biggest obstacles for change has always been the fact that we tend to have established routines that are hard to break, but the pandemic shattered many people's routines, setting us up for a reset. Dr. Santos said, we've all just changed our routines so much, she said.

I think many of us have realized during the pandemic that some of the things we were doing before COVID-19 weren't the kind of things that were leading to a flourishing in our lives. I think many of us were realizing that aspects of our work and family life and even our relationships probably need to change if we want to be happier.

And so they go on to talk about this fresh start challenge. While the start of a new chapter is a great time for change, the pages will turn quickly. Now that we're emerging from the restrictions of pandemic life, social scientists say it's an ideal time to start thinking about what you've learned in the past year.

What are the habits you want to keep and what parts of your pandemic life do you want to change? We have a limited window to deliberate about it because pretty quickly. We'll have a new pattern established and probably want to rethink it again after a while. So this article came out on May 11th, and they issued a 10 day challenge, join the Fresh Start Challenge.

And what they did is you could text them and then they would text you a message for 10 days that caused you to rethink your habits, rethink what you were doing, and I'm gonna share some of those with you just at a high level. I highly encourage you to find this article to . Read these. Maybe even sign up for this if you want to go through this process.

Day one, they ask you to evaluate how are you really doing? Day two, let's have an exercise snack. Instead of grabbing that snack, go, go walk, or something to that effect. Day three, try a fierce meditation. Day four, ask a connection question date number five, resist your technology. Which is great. Put down your technology, not right now, 'cause you're listening to this podcast, but put it down.

Day six, meditate on the go. Day seven, brush your way to a new habit. And what they talk about is you brush your teeth every day. While you're doing that, perhaps you're meditate, perhaps you do some other things. Day eight, take a gratitude photo. Take a photo every day of something that you are thankful for.

Day number nine, hug just a little bit longer, not so that it's weird. But just a little longer. And day 10. Give yourself a break. That's all from the story. Let's do this. We could do this together. I evaluated how I did through the pandemic with the help of those around me and on several fronts. It was a good reset for me and on other fronts.

I took steps back. The CO 10 became the COVID 15 for me. That's. Pounds. If you're wondering, my exercise habit was almost non-existent. Relationships were a strength for me during the pandemic. As I was able to reestablish connections, make new ones, and strengthen relationships with those closest to me, I was more intentional about calling people and just checking in, and I'd like that to continue.

I was a person that traveled extensively for work during my career, sometimes traveling 42 weeks in a single year. That's my personal high, although it wasn't my personal high. If you know what I'm getting at, I've had more mind time and strategy sessions around my personal mission statement and my business goals and objectives.

I. During this time, this is the fourth year of this week in health it, and we have mapped out areas of growth, which the launch of this podcast was one of those areas. We've added three wonderful ladies to the staff who have all brought their talents and ideas to the team and moved it forward. But now we're coming out of the pandemic.

Over 50% of the adult population has been vaccinated. Even more, have also had the virus. This is another marker that we can plan around. What do you want your life to look like coming out of the pandemic? What habits are you going to establish to ensure that you create that life? My executive coach introduced me to this thought of a character driven life versus a plot driven life.

A plot driven life is one that life just happens to you. You get to a certain age and you go to school, and then you get to a certain age and you get married. Then you get to a certain age and you have kids and you just follow the plot that has been written for you and he. Talked about this idea of a character driven life, which is to decide what kinda life you wanna live and create that life.

And his coaching over the years has really helped me to stay away from that plot driven life and to really decide what do I want my life to look like? Now I realize not everybody has that opportunity, but for those of us who do, you should take advantage of it. You've been given great opportunities in this country and in the world that you live in and in this industry.

And we should take advantage of that. We should be intentional about what we want our lives to look like, both in how we interact with this world and how we give back to this world. All right. That's all for today. Thanks for listening. By the way, yesterday we set an all new record for daily downloads of this podcast, weekly run rate, 30 day, 90 day run rate.

All trending significantly higher. That and your notes via social media and email bill at this week in health it.com are what keep us going over here. So thank you. If you know of someone that might benefit from our channel, please forward them a note. They can subscribe on our website this week, health.com or wherever you listen to podcast Apple, Google Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher.

You get the picture, we are everywhere or we're trying to be. We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders, VMware Hillrom, Starbridge Advisors, McAfee and Aruba Networks. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.