New Year’s Resolutions
You may have already started to discuss your New Year’s resolutions with your friends and family and start to feel that motivation build up inside you. Perhaps this is the year you hope to lose all of that extra weight?
I am all for setting goals and coming up with action plans for how to achieve them, as this helps direct us with the changes we want to implement. I am conscious of how “resolutions” can actually raise feelings of guilt for people. So what I want to do, is help put things in perspective. Instead of feeling like there are so many things you didn’t achieve – how about you look back on the past year and focus on what you did achieve.
I recently heard recently of a friend that writes notes over the year, of great memories, goals achieved or things she is grateful for and puts them into a jar. At the beginning of a new year, she reads them out to herself to reflect on the year that has been and focus on all of the good things she achieved throughout the year, rather than the things she did not achieve. Why not try this yourself this year? Decorate a jar and put it somewhere in sight to remind you to do it when you can. Pop a pen and pad of paper next to it, so that it is an easy thing for you to do.
If you are set on making some ‘resolutions’ for the year, try make these goals realistic, achievable and exciting, and include different areas of your lives, rather than focusing just on ‘weight-loss’. Other areas to consider are health, eating habits, personal growth, finances and relationships.
For example, a goal could be to go on an adventure that you have always wanted to go on, like that waterfall hunt you have been thinking about. Maybe you are sick of wasting your evening scrolling on your phone and instead you would like to read some more books? Initially, try to set a goal for one night a week to leave your phone in your room while you sit in the lounge reading a book. It will be much easier to achieve your goals if you make them realistic and set smaller action steps or mini goals to help get you there.
Most importantly, have no guilt attached and remember to focus on what you have achieved in 2018.
