It’s a new year with all the promise of refreshing new starts. Traditionally, at this time of year, many of us make resolutions about how we’re going to change things in the new year, how we’re going to improve our lives.
This is good stuff although it can also be a fast track to sabotaging ourselves by setting optimistic, but often, unrealistic resolutions and goals.
So, why not start out first planning for success in our new year’s resolutions and goals?
How do you start planning for success? It’s interesting to think about planning for success, isn’t it? It’s not a concept that we necessarily think about in our culture that much. I think that most of the time, we all face challenges and just hope we succeed; rather than actually planning to succeed.
A great way to plan for success is to keep your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely or time based. You need a measurable outcome that’s well defined and highly focused. Start with small goals that you can do in a week, then 2 weeks, and then see if you can continue completing that goal for an entire month. An example would be deciding not to have bread with your dinner meals.
Another example would be going to a Yoga class once a week for a month. Or decide to have a green smoothie four days a week for a month. How about taking a 15 minute walk everyday for a month. If that’s too hard, take weekends off. Adjust the parameters of your goal to suit yourself and your own personality and what you know you can and will do.
You get the idea: make it a goal that you can easily accomplish, make it a healthy goal that will make you feel successful. That’s the ticket!
A final thought: I’ve often been amazed at my own ability to let myself down. I keep promises to my family and friends almost without fail and feel terrible if I let someone else down. Many of us do, right?
Then why is it so easy to break promises to ourselves? I suppose I could go into all the cultural reasons for this but I think it suffices to say that breaking promises to ourselves is a common phenomena. It’s a kind of self sabotage, really, and it can make us feel badly about ourselves.
Truth is, we’re our own best friends. Think about it. Just as no one but us can manage our diabetes, no one but us can manage how we treat ourselves. Seriously, if you’re not already your own best friend, give it a shot by keeping promises you make to yourself.