New Year is infamous for all the resolutions made… and given up on by end of January.
When the year starts you’re motivated, driven by all the ‘new year, new you’ talk everywhere you turn. When everyone around you is working on their resolutions and themselves, it makes it easy to do your very best as well!
Come end of January, however, motivation starts dwindling and people start conveniently forgetting they made a resolution in the first place. If you can relate with that, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Changes that stick, whether big or small, can be hard to accomplish.
Making a change is a journey, and we hope to help you make it through the stormy waters.
Don’t let your mind wander too much. It’s easy to get swept up in daydreaming. You decided to start eating healthy this year, and you’re already imagining yourself looking like a Victoria’s Secret Angel in a few months. While it can be a motivating thought at first, thinking so far ahead and dreaming about a possible future can also demotivate you. Maybe you’re not reaching the goals you imagine fast enough, or you don’t really see any results from your change. Your illusion of the future you imagine cracks, and you find yourself binge watching Netflix with so much candy Charlie’s Chocolate Factory probably went out-of-stock thanks to you. The cure for this unfortunate series of events is to be present. Don’t look to a possible future, but rather build it everyday, looking forward to seeing what you achieved when the time is right.
Learn how to be present in every moment with the help of ‘Present Moment by Christine Hassler’ meditation found in Bellabeat Coach.
In case you made a resolution for this year, it’s probably something big you want to force yourself to change. Give up smoking. Give up chocolate. Exercise at least 4 times a week. Whatever it was, it might be hard to go cold-turkey, and will likely make you cave sooner if that’s how you approach it. Start small. Buy a pack of cigarettes and make it last a week. Then two weeks. Then stop completely. Switch to dark chocolate, and limit your intake. Start small, and sign up to exercise classes 2 times a week. Remember you have a whole year to reach your resolution goal, don’t go all in from the start and lose it all by the end. Small victories can be very motivating, so create a list of small stepping stones to the big resolution, and cross one goal off the list once you reach it.
The easiest way to stick to your decisions is to tell everyone. That way if you give up, you’ll have to deal with the awkwardness of questions like ‘How’s it going?’ for the next several months. It’s also important to have support when you start wavering. Someone you can reach out to that will remind you why you started down this road in the first place. Someone who knows you well enough to know the method that works best to get you motivated – whether that is tough love, or just gently nudging you forward.
We’re often our own worst critics. It’s easy to find your flaws and mistakes when you’re looking for them. Which is why people might tell you ‘I didn’t even notice that!’ when you point something out. Don’t start out this year expecting everything to change, and then find ways to blame yourself when things don’t seem all too different. Stop finding fault in you, and start focusing on the good. You made a decision to change. That is huge! Don’t devalue that. Some people don’t even get that far. Take everything else a step at a time. You’re not in a rush. You don’t have to compete with anyone or prove anything. Go at your own pace. Be the turtle in the race, not the hare.
We hope these suggestions give you a little more motivation, and help you when you start to waver on your decisions.
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