Eyeshadow Can Change Your Life | A Workplace Blog

By Beth Schaefer

IPD Director

The Workplace Resolution Concept

It’s January, and the start of a new year, so the IPD January article focuses on the New Year and the resolutions or fresh starts that come with it. To freshen up the article idea, I decided to take a different approach and focus the article on workplace resolutions. A quick search on the internet showed me I was not the first to take this “fresh approach” (You can scroll to the end to see the lists I compiled).

Even as I am encouraging you to set a workplace resolution and pondering my own, I wonder if I need the extra stress of a resolution. Isn’t the workplace already filled with deadlines, goals, benchmarks, and KPIs?

The Eyeshadow Resolution

And, then I think of the year of the Eyeshadow Resolution: my most successful resolution ever that occurred about 10 years ago. I was at a New Year’s Day brunch and pressed into sharing a resolution- which I tend not to make or share, but with excessive badgering, I stated that I would resolve to wear eyeshadow every day.

The year of the Eyeshadow Resolution was the year that I lost 60 pounds.

I always laugh at that result and explain it as a fluke, but while researching workplace resolution lists, I came across an article that explained why the Eyeshadow Resolution was so successful. To summarize the research: use your resolution to change your process, not set a qualitative number with a deadline.

The Process Resolution

At the time, the eyeshadow goal served the purpose of keeping people from being in my business, but I had fallen into a bad habit of not getting out of bed when the alarm went off. Occasionally, I got up on time to get fully ready for work (back in the day when you traveled outside your home to the office and wore a matching top and pants and makeup). Instead, I hit the snooze button and eliminated parts of my morning routine with each button tap. Not wearing makeup was the first elimination so I could sleep 10 more minutes, followed by other options such as not eating breakfast or not packing a lunch.

By resolving to wear eyeshadow each day, I had to quit hitting the snooze button. To quit hitting the snooze button, I had to go to bed earlier so that I was less tired in the morning. To be less tired and get a good night’s sleep, I had to be sleepy at bedtime. To be sleepy at bedtime, I started doing more exercise and activity. The Eyeshadow Resolution led to a change in my sleep process which led to overall positive changes for my daily routine that included: activity, sleep, breakfast, and packing lunch.

The Resolution Frame

A resolution is a big-picture change. While it offers intent, it does not provide a plan.

A goal is a measurement. While it offers a concrete pass/fail measure to a resolution, it does not provide a plan.

A process resolution is the key to achieving a goal and a resolution because it contains the first (of perhaps many) concrete steps to change.

To frame a resolution as a change in process is easier said than done, but if you are in a resolution rut, this may be the lens for you to reframe and achieve a goal. I have taken some of the workplace resolutions I found and attempted to frame the process to help get you started.

The Final Notes

At the time of publication, I am still pondering my process resolution goals for both my personal life and my workplace.

In full disclosure, during the past 3 years, I have gained 30 of the 60 pounds back. Since I work from home and mostly adopted a default routine during the pandemic, it is probably time for me to make an intentional process resolution on my work-from-home routine.

The positive of any resolution is that while we mostly feel that we fail, research provides proof that we do not.

Even though 43% end their resolutions by February, that leaves more than half who are still forming a new habit after the first month.
New Year’s resolutions are 10 times more likely to succeed over other methods of change.
You cannot win if you do not enter. 8% of people fully achieve their resolution. You can be part of that 8% – especially if you are smart about the resolution framing.

I wish your process resolution success in in 2024.