Each year, January 1st rolls around and takes us all by surprise.
So often will you hear the phrase ‘can you believe it’s January already?!’ Time goes fast…another phrase also commonly uttered.
Each year some of us attempt to make New Year’s Resolutions.
Commitments or promises to ourselves to help encourage growth and improvement in us. Personally, I am almost addicted to making resolutions. Not only at the beginning of each year, but almost monthly, or sometimes weekly, I make resolutions ‘this week I will not eat a certain food’, ‘this month I will do a certain amount of yoga practices’.
When you are constantly making resolutions, it’s pretty difficult to stick to them all.
Tips for keeping resolutions
We all know it’s pretty common to let go of our resolutions at some point during the year. Whether you’re trying to quit smoking, cut down on booze, get fit or learn a new skill… somewhere along the way, many of us don’t succeed in our perseverance.
A new year is a great time to evaluate ourselves and to look into what could better us as people.
Often our resolutions are to do with giving up something that we love, but may be bad for us. Often these things are addictions, and simply swearing to never do it again from January 1st onwards may not be the best way to stick to it. What I have learned, and what I am slowly learning, is to focus on the feelings which we attain when we have achieved even a small amount of what we aim for.
How does it feel to have not smoked for a week?
How do you feel waking up on a Sunday with no hangover?
Though it may be tough, how do you feel after that grueling workout? Often the feelings of love, peace, relief and bettering one’s self are feelings which we don’t even know we have, many people accept themselves as they are, even though they are unhappy.
Focus on the positive
Focusing on those feelings, and taking them into both your body and mind will help to encourage the persistence and perseverance that we all need.
Moreover, focusing on the positive effects of such actions brings positivity into your life.
This is an age-old saying, and it is said so often these days, that it’s hard to believe it’s even true. It’s put up there with ‘feed a cold, starve a fever’, ‘hair of the dog’ or the old swimming after you eat myth. But really, positive thinking will draw positivity into your life. That’s not to say it isn’t there I the first place, it will just become more apparent and evident to you, you will notice the good things, appreciate the little things, and the way you feel will rub off on other people, and vice versa.
Similarly, if you are phrasing your resolutions in a negative manner, i.e. ‘I will quit smoking, because I smoke too much’, then there is no positivity to be had from this. Thinking ‘I am going to stop smoking because when I don’t smoke, I feel so much better’, will allow for more positive actions to take place within you.
As you start to bring your awareness more and more to the positive feelings you obtain from the action, the addiction can then become a good thing, you can become addicted to feeling great!
Once you have firmly established this new habit/routine in your life, it becomes something that is part of you, part of feeling good, and something that you won’t want to let go of.