Reviving Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s a few months into the new year, and this might be the time where you have let your new year’s resolutions drop off. Maybe you said you were going to go to the gym 5 times a week, or you said you’re going to write that book this year, or you were going to start that business or change jobs. But as we head into this 3rd month of the year you’ve dropped off and have fallen back into patterns of behavior you had before. This post is meant to share how I work with my clients to help them revive their resolutions to really get to where they want to be. Here are a few ways you can do that for yourself.
Stop Making Resolutions – It might sound counter-intuitive to the title of this blog post but the idea of resolutions inherently doesn’t work due to the thought process of just magically asserting you will do things different. For example, if you didn’t exercise much before the new year, or you use food for comfort or have other food triggers, it’s going to be difficult for you to just motivate yourself to do it based on the fact that it’s the new year. Instead work to make measurable adjustments for the year. So maybe you say to yourself that this year is the year you’re going to tackle your unhealthy relationship with food. Doing this is much more productive and can lead to you adopting healthier exercise habits by association based on this one goal adjustment. So think of your goals for the new year and make measurable adjustments to your life.
You Have Too Many Resolutions – Sometimes when I work with my clients they have so many things they want to do they get overwhelmed. I always say you can do everything just not all at once. So if you have too many goals on the go it can actually be the reason you have stalled in your resolutions. So take the time to really circle or highlight the top 5-7 goals or areas of your life you really want to work on. It’s usually good to pick something in all different areas of your life, but the objective here is to narrow your focus to get results. You can always have that list of everything you want to do and slowly as you accomplish things you can replace them with another goal that is worthy of completion.
Remind Yourself of Success – We can sometimes be so focused on the thing we want, we forget the things we have already achieved. Gratitude sets the tone, so while I encourage my clients to make a vision board, I also encourage them to make a success board. To write out and include photos of big goals they already have accomplished. This is great as it reminds your brain you can do hard things. By doing that it also helps your brain to get excited about achieving your current goals because it knows it can.
Remember Your Why And Change Fast – Of course any goal you create you really want to make sure you are connected to it. So if you want to make a lot of money really think about your why for this. Do you want the money for something specific? Or will it just be a cool goal to complete. The more actual attachment you have to the goal the better odds of completing it. Be honest with yourself, if you have a goal on your list right now that you just put on because you think that is what you should want to achieve, but you don’t feel attached to it, take it off change it and add something that is really going to make you feel excited!
I hope these few suggestions have helped you look at how you can set your new year’s resolutions differently. Remember the goal with the goal is to help you achieve what you want and have that achievement prove real value in your life, so it’s more than just setting goals. It takes true self-awareness to set proper goals and achieve them and that is what enriches your life.