Make Your New Year Count
With a New Year beginning you’ve probably already been telling yourself that there are some changes that you’d like to make in the coming year. You may look at it as another chance of starting over, wipe the slate clean and begin again.
Realistically though, you know that it’s not entirely possible to wipe the slate clean, your life is already in motion and because the calendar changes over your bad habits won’t suddenly disappear and the things you’d like to do change won’t just happen. Whether you want to get out of debt, become more healthy and fit, be more productive, become better at keeping your commitments, none of this will happen unless you take action. One of the biggest problems is most of these entails giving things up, the cigarettes, alcohol, buying all the things you love to buy, shoes, purses, dining out at expensive restaurants, and so on.
New Year’s resolutions are still a tradition.
Personally I would suggest to set goals as goals made properly will have a direction. Where are you heading, where is the finishing line? It’s not pie in the sky thinking, it’s more concrete, you can measure a goal. Do you want to lose 10 lbs? There’s your goal! Do you want to cut back your spending by $150 a month? That’s a goal, once you know what it is you have to figure out the steps to make it happen. When you have a clear goal you’re well on your way. Take it a step at a time and don’t overwhelm yourself with huge long to do lists. Keep it simple. Many of us start off the year with great intentions only to fall by the wayside within a few weeks. Just as many are already feeling they will fail again, they are skeptical and don’t trust themselves because of past experience where they have failed to follow through and achieve the goals they set for themselves. If you are wondering what’s the point of even making a commitment when you are convinced that you will probably break it, you already feel doomed to succeed. Well don’t give up! We all fail sometime or other, but it’s not all bad, don’t give up maybe this will be the year you will succeed. Failure takes you a step closer to success, you can always learn something from failing.
Look at it a new way…
So we know we haven’t followed through in the past and that many of the things we want to change involves giving something up. When most of us dislike giving things up, getting rid of things, of feeling deprived of something, this creates a problem right from the start What if you do things differently this New Year? Do it the other way around and ADD some good things to your life. Make a list of things you can add to your life throughout this new year. The one caveat here is that they are positive things, do not add more bad habits. If you add healthy foods, you will have less need for junk food. If you add some form of movement like going for a nice walk, hiking or running, bike ride, roller blading, dancing, (exercise) you will have less need to sit around watching TV.
Add more friends, add more time with friends and family. Add a hobby or two, add volunteering your time to helping others. Add a hiking trip, cooking classes, learning to swim. Add things that will add to your life rather than take away. If you are not taking care of yourself your taking away from your own life and pleasure. There are so many options of good things you can add, and you get to choose. As you add more good things to your life the things that you may have found difficult to let go of won’t have such a hold on you. When you take positive action you will feel better about yourself and the results will soon become evident. The bottom line is look forward to adding good things to your life this year and forget the” what do I have to give up, get rid of” mentality and see what happens. It sounds like a lot more fun to me and I’m going to give it a try myself. Make this year productive, healthy and happy. Make it count!
